tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69696509893100011062024-02-19T01:42:52.713-08:00Paleo diet for Mostly VegetariansI am a mostly Vegetarian guy who believes in the Paleolithic Principle. In this blog I intend to document my research on diet.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-58490438792719423162019-03-28T03:40:00.001-07:002019-03-28T04:01:53.161-07:00Dr. Stephan Guyenet's references to the Joe Rogan Experience Debate with Gary TaubesI was introduced to the principles of health by <b>Dr. Stephan Guyenet</b> who had a blog named <b>WholeHealthSource</b> (now http://www.stephanguyenet.com), more than 10 years ago. He was a student at that time. The first article I read was about Vitamin K2. He is a researcher working on the Neurobiology of Obesity. He recently had a debate with <b>Gary Taubes</b> of <b>Good Calories Bad Calories</b> on the Joe Rogan Experience. I have read that book and it is pretty good. But Gary Taubes is married to the <b>Insulin drives obesity</b> theory. Obviously there would be a lot of contentions between the two. Stephan has posted an article which links to all the research papers he has on all the contentious issues raised during the debate.
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http://www.stephanguyenet.com/references-for-my-debate-with-gary-taubes-on-the-joe-rogan-experience/
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<b>TL;DR:</b> Calorie is king, and brain is the regulator of fat, insulin has minimal effect on obesity, ease of getting tasty food and over indulgence is the basic problem. <br />
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Stephan has also shown several references where we can see that Gary Taubes is very willing to misuse data to forward his pet theories (Rigor section).
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To quote regarding Low Carbohydrate diets.<br />
<i>For context, I am favorable toward low-carbohydrate diets, but the references below mostly reflect issues that Gary and I are likely to disagree on.</i>
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It is a huge article. Following are all the different subtitles of the sections in his article.
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<h3>
The brain</h3>
1. The brain regulates body fatness<br />
2. The genetics of obesity point to the brain, not fat cells or insulin, as the primary determinant of body fatness<br />
3. The brain regulates appetite<br />
4. The determinants of appetite are complex and cannot be reduced to glucose and insulin<br />
5. Lean people, and people with obesity, both “defend” their current level of body fatness against fat loss<br />
6. Single-gene mutations that lead to obesity in humans act in the brain<br />
<h3>
Calories</h3>
7. People with obesity eat, and expend, more calories than lean people<br />
8. Reducing the calorie intake of a person with obesity to that of a lean person causes weight loss<br />
9. Calorie intake, not carbohydrate intake, is the main dietary determinant of body fat loss<br />
10. Changes in body fatness as a result of diet depend primarily on calorie intake, not carbohydrate intake<br />
11. Energy expenditure (metabolic rate) is scarcely affected by differences in carbohydrate and fat intake<br />
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Carbohydrate, sugar, and fat</h3>
12. Low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets cause weight loss, even without deliberate portion control<br />
13. A low-calorie diet composed almost entirely of refined carbohydrate, including sugar, causes substantial weight loss<br />
14. Dietary fat can be fattening in a variety of nonhuman species<br />
15. Dietary fat can be fattening in humans<br />
16. Fat and carbohydrate are equally fattening when overconsumed<br />
17. Sugar intake has been declining for 20 years in the US and 50 years in the UK, while obesity and diabetes rates have risen<br />
18. Carbohydrate, fat, and protein intake in the US over the last century<br />
19. White flour intake was much higher in 1900 in the US than it is today<br />
20. Sugar intake in the US, 1822-2016<br />
21. Cultures with high intakes of sugar but otherwise healthy diets and lifestyles do not have obesity or diabetes<br />
22. During the Cuban economic crisis, sugar intake rose, calorie intake declined, and obesity plummeted<br />
23. Cultures with very high intakes of carbohydrate tend to be lean, even if the carbohydrate is white rice<br />
24. In human randomized controlled trials, sugar is only fattening by virtue of its calories<br />
25. In randomized controlled trials, low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets yield similar (unimpressive) long-term weight loss results<br />
26. Meta-analyses of ketogenic diet studies<br />
27. Adherence to ketogenic diets tends to be mediocre<br />
28. The Virta Health study<br />
29. Eating sugar does not impair weight loss on calorie-reduced diets<br />
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Diabetes</h3>
30. Weight loss greatly reduces the risk of developing type 2 (common) diabetes<br />
31. Reducing fat intake, without reducing carbohydrate intake, causes weight loss and reduces type 2 (common) diabetes risk<br />
32. Exercise substantially reduces the risk of developing type 2 (common) diabetes<br />
33. Weight loss via a temporary very-low-calorie diet durably puts type 2 (common) diabetes into remission<br />
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Insulin and insulin resistance</h3>
34. Insulin resistance predicts a variety of age-related diseases<br />
35. People with higher insulin levels don’t gain more weight over time than people with lower insulin levels<br />
36. Weight loss increases insulin sensitivity, regardless of whether it’s achieved by a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet<br />
37. Insulin resistance is “an appropriate response to nutrient excess“<br />
38. When fat cells “fill up” due to fat gain, energy spills over onto other tissues, causing insulin resistance<br />
39. The impact of foods on blood glucose and insulin has little do with how filling they are<br />
40. Insulin resistance is caused (in large part) by exceeding the unique storage capacity of your own fat tissue<br />
41. Mendelian randomization studies on the impact of insulin level on body fatness<br />
42. Of the three published studies funded by Taubes’s organization the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI), at least two, and possibly all three, refuted the carbohydrate-insulin hypothesis<br />
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Exercise</h3>
43. Exercise tends to cause weight and fat loss in people with excess body fat<br />
44. Exercise increases insulin sensitivity<br />
45. Sedentary behavior causes insulin resistance<br />
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Food reward</h3>
46. Fat and carbohydrate both cause dopamine release and increase eating drive, particularly when combined<br />
47. The most commonly/intensely craved foods combine carbohydrate and fat together, while foods that are high in sugar or fat alone are less commonly craved<br />
48. We eat more food when it tastes better<br />
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Rigor</h3>
49. Calling for more rigor in science does not necessarily make a person rigorous<br />
50. Expert reviews of Taubes’s writing have uncovered extensive misuse of evidence<br />
51. The Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI), with Gary Taubes at its helm, attempted to interfere with the research that it funded once unfavorable results came in<br />
<h3>
Miscellaneous</h3>
52. The most fattening diet in animals and humans is human junk food, and its fattening effect cannot be explained by carbohydrate or fat alone<br />
53. Obesity has a strong genetic component<br />
54. Synthesis of fat from carbohydrate is negligible in humans eating typical Western diets<br />
55. Partially suppressing the release of fat from fat cells (lipolysis) does not cause fat gain, hunger, or a slower metabolic rate<br />
56. The fat tissue of people with obesity releases fat at a greater rate than that of lean people, not a slower rateAnand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-73338754350909539382018-03-05T06:48:00.001-08:002018-03-05T06:48:38.792-08:00Klieber's Law and evolutions that made us human<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleiber%27s_law">Klieber's law</a> says that the ratio between the masses of animals and their metabolic energy consumption are related by a power law. Specifically energy goes up by the power of 3/4 with mass. This means that an animal that is 16 times bigger than another animal will be able to use 8 times the energy of the other animal.<br />
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Note for the non-science people. The energy we consume is ordered energy which converts to disordered energy called heat, according to the law of conservation of energy. So as we use energy it converts to heat.<br />
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The law comes about because of the problem of transporting heat and oxygen and other nutrients through the body. So a body will not be able to dissipate more than that energy or transport enough oxygen, so the energy is limited. Since this law is related to heat dissipation, it applies to different <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/56/4/325/229015">classes of living organisms differently</a>. It works as defined only for warm blooded animals (and birds), and there are slight deviations for warm blooded animals living in water. This a pretty fundamental law and the deviations are minor.<br />
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There are several kinds of tissues in the body. Normal or structural cells are the most frugal in their energy use. <a href="http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-84551997000100023">Special tissues</a> have different energy requirements. The most expensive of them all are neurons or the brain cells. The other biggest energy sink is the digestive system. It basically separates humans and the rest.<br />
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The other constraint is food availability and success in feeding. Food can also be divided into several types. Meat provides a very important macro-nutrient, but is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_dynamic_action">thermogenic</a> so not a very efficient source of energy. Carbs are normally complex in nature, and require a lot of indirect digestion through the use of bacteria. There are some exceptions, fruits and honey which have sugars, which are easier to absorb directly. Fats is rare in nature, even the animals in nature have little fat, except females during gestation, or animals before entering hibernation.<br />
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The herbivores have the most complex digestive systems and the smallest brains, as they spend too much energy digesting the food. They actually don't even eat directly. They breed bacteria which feed on their food and they feed on the output of the bacteria. Lots of the produced bacteria get thrown out which is why it becomes very inefficient.<br />
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The obligate carnivores have the simplest of digestive systems, but they eat a lot of protein, which is very thermogenic. Almost 30% of the energy goes waste as heat. This is why they don't have much energy left to have a bigger brain.<br />
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Lastly are the omnivores. These are able to eat both animal and plant matter. But it depends on what type of food they eat. Note if protein is eaten separately it will be converted to glucose and produce lots of heat and if plants are eaten it will require lots of energy. Still they are midway and generally have a slight advantage in the brain department.<br />
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We should take a note of birds and sea mammals here. Birds are omnivores and eat seeds, insects, and in some cases large animals. Sea Mammals eat fish mostly, but they are in water which allows them to dissipate heat much more easily, which gives them a slight edge as per Klieber's law. Both can go higher on the scale to have a higher brain size. But birds cannot grow very big if they have to fly, and they also need to have large parts of brain dedicated to flying functions. Sea mammals are considered pretty intelligent. In fact Dolphin and Killer Whales are next to humans in intelligence.<br />
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So we have seen how an omnivore diet helps in supporting larger brain. Now coming to the specific case of Primates and evolution to human. The primate closest in intelligence to human is Chimpanzee, and is also closest to us in genetic distance. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_chimpanzee#Diet">They are fruitarians</a> and non-vegetarians. They actually hunt for other monkeys and animals for meat. The fruit is very easy to digest which allows less energy wasted on the gut bacteria, allowing brain to grow. And meat consumption allows for easy access to protein which is very low in fruits.<br />
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Proto-Humans also started off as tree dwellers eating fruit and meat. Then they developed the ability to break bones to get to the marrow part. The marrow is highly nutritious both in energy and nutrients. This was a critical development, and <a href="http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/winter-01012015/article/study-lends-new-support-to-theory-that-early-humans-were-scavengers">moved them to become scavengers</a>, hunting for kills from the top predators. It also caused a jump in brain size, because of the extra energy from fat. They gave up living in trees and moved to grasslands.<br />
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Then about 1.8 million years ago, something changed. Proto-Humans (aka the homo-erectus) lost their gut. This is pretty significant, as it means that they stopped relying much on the highly fibrous plant matter. The most likely thing is that they learnt how to use<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4163920/"> fire to cook their food</a>. Heat softens food and makes it more bio-available. This caused a very big change in the brain.<br />
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The last major change was around 200,000 years ago, when Homo Sapiens arose. The major change is likely that humans learnt how to obtain starches and sugars more easily. It could be the evolution of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeyguide">honeyguide</a> which provided humans access to a lot of honey and simple sugars. Humans could have also started to selectively breed more starchy tubers and fruits.<br />
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What we learn from this evolutionary story, is that simpler foods are better for our brains, but it takes several generations for the brain to increase due to increase in energy. It also requires a lot of nutrients, unless the human body adapts to producing them from other more plentiful nutrients. In the short term the excess energy is only going to make us fat.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-33563191278151296622017-11-24T01:05:00.000-08:002018-04-23T02:50:22.691-07:00Paleolithic Principle and DietThis is an explanation of the Paleolithic Principle and my expectations of the Paleolithic diet.<br />
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First off we should get rid of the myth that Paleolithic people led short brutish lives. This statement is a general misunderstanding of the concept of life expectancy at birth and due to the bones found of paleolithic people.<br />
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Paleolithic people generally had much better bones than the neolithic and present people. A life expectancy of 30 does not mean that people lived only till 30 years. This means that average of the age at death of people was 30 years. Lots of children died within a couple of years after birth, which reduced at higher ages, but still significant number of children did not live past 15 years of age. After that death due to diseases and accidents reduces significantly. It is common to find men/women of age 80 years in hunter gatherers.<br />
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Also menopause which starts after 45 years cannot evolve unless people are living beyond the age of 50 regularly. It is an adaptation to reduce resource competition by taking females out of the task of producing offsprings thereby reducing the population, and provide help to the younger females so that the young ones can be cared for better.<br />
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There are two phases in human development. Before migration from Africa, and after. The adaptation made before the migration are common to all humans. Adaptations made after are not.<br />
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It is easy to recognize that humans migrated from Africa because the genetic variation in Africa are much more than elsewhere. Also the reason why humans have the huge number of sweat glands and very little hairs. This is because humans evolved in a hot and dry environment.<br />
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The diet prior to migration would be called the paleolithic diet. The later changes are due to adoption of agriculture. Where humans started to grow grains and legumes and drying and storing them for lean periods. This period is marked by higher consumption of grains and legumes and adaptations based on these.<br />
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There are controversies regarding Paleolithic diet. Paleolithic period human remains obtained are high in 15N Nitrogen isotope. Since these are high in grasses rather than other types of plant food, and humans cannot consume grasses, it was assumed that humans ate a lot of meat of animals that were eating grasses. But recently it has been discovered that there are some tubers that are high in 15N, particularly the tiger nut. It is possible and makes more sense that humans consumed these type of tubers as a majority of their diets. In fact some of the old African tribes use these as their staple.
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Hunts are not always successful, and there are very few extinctions in Africa, so it is likely that humans evolved and became adept at hunting, while animals evolved in Africa to avoid getting hunted. When skilled humans moved out of Africa, they were a totally different beasts for the animals in the rest of the world and the animals could not adapt and were extincted.<br />
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So humans must not have obtained a regular supply of meat.
Also fruits in Africa are huge. It is very much obvious that humans obtained a large part of their calories from high carb foods. As an aside note that all long living populations at present are high carb, Okinawans and Mediterraneans; Okinawans more than mediterraneans.<br />
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We also know that Africans have a much longer colon, which means that humans had a much higher consumption of fiber. The fruits and tuber consumption would provide them with the high fiber content.<br />
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There is another observation. There is a bird called honeyguide. It has evolved along with humans and can guide them to beehives. The present African tribes use the Honeyguides to obtain a lot of honey during season. This results in a very high sugar diet during the season. The tribals do not suffer any harmful effects of this high sugar diet.<br />
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Hunts succeeded rarely, so meat was not a big part of the diet, but smaller animals could be caught regularly. So it was a regular part of the diet, but not a staple.<br />
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Fat is very difficult to obtain in the wild. Most of the plant foods don't have much of it. And animals in the wild don't accumulate much fat except during specific seasons or pregnancy. Many tribesmen try to avoid killing females, and particularly pregnant or mothers. This can be seen in meat preferences to this day.<br />
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Humans have been cooking for at least a couple of hundred thousand years.<br />
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Tribal people are not particularly known for their cleanliness. And this means that they get a huge amount of bacteria in their bodies.<br />
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To summarize paleolithic diet was based on real and whole food.<br />
It was high in carbs, fibers and simple sugars.<br />
It contained regular meat consumption but was not a major part of calories.<br />
It was low in fat.<br />
Majority of calories came from tubers, followed by fruits, and seasonally honey.<br />
Grains were very rare and legumes were never dried. Legumes were part of vegetables.<br />
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Now the paleolithic diet ideas cannot be directly used in modern times.<br />
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It is difficult to get good quality honey for most people. Refined foods must be avoided including refined sugar. Raw cane sugar maybe ok, in small quantities.<br />
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Our digestive system can no longer handle huge amounts of fiber. Still its a good idea to determine how much fiber we can handle, and aim for that.<br />
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Meat and other animal products are good to consume regularly.<br />
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Grains and dried legumes should be reduced in the diet. Dried legumes are probably ok after sprouting.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-52487995037089408262017-05-31T00:54:00.000-07:002017-05-31T01:00:35.582-07:00Weight loss theory and strategiesWeight loss requires calorie deficit. That is the thermodynamic principal.
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Now this can be done via two ways, reducing intake and/or increasing expenditure. The better option is to use both together in various ways.
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Both have their difficulties and pitfalls. And as you will realize below, you cannot have a sustainable weight loss without using both together.
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Before we begin the most important part to understand is that the body has a fat set point, which it will defend. To force the body to lose weight you have to change your diet/exercise regime. And to have sustainable weight loss you have to have a sustainable strategy.
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Lets take the less complex part, increasing expenditure. This will have a feedback in increasing hunger, which causes more intake, due to the fat set point. Also there is the case of adequate rest, and avoiding repetitive stress injuries. You also want to avoid overusing very few muscles. The exercise needs to be overall body, with adequate rest, and a healthy diet.
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Now for reducing intake. This can be done two ways.
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Destroy your digestive system so that it cannot absorb the energy. For some reason bariatric surgeons favor this route, possibly because it makes them more money. You can also have it destroyed by overusing antibiotics.
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The other more prudent way is to eat less. This strategy is pretty complex because of several reasons.
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First the body has a set point which it wants to defend. So attempting to eat less will increase your hunger and temptation to food. The strategy of fighting your basic hunger will be a failing strategy. So your strategy has to reduce your calories but while achieving satiation.
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Second the body can control its expenditure, by releasing or holding body heat. Basically the body needs to burn calories for doing work as well as maintaining body heat. So it can reduce the expenditure by slowing metabolism by reducing body temperature. This is the starvation response, the thyroid hormones are down regulated and metabolic rate is reduced. This happens when the calorie intake is low too for too long.
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Third the diet must provide enough micro-nutrients for the body's upkeep. Your body can supply the energy by burning the excess fat, but it has limited stores of micro-nutrients. So these must be part of your diet in adequate amounts. This actually implies that the diet should be low in carbs and fats, as both are plain calories which you want to reduce. It is best to consume whole natural foods.
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Fourth the diet must be highly satiating. This is the most complex and subjective part of the diet. It depends on every persons personal tastes and gut flora. There are a few generic ideas that would help.
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Protein is more exothermic so keeps your metabolic rate higher, and is not readily used for energy, which makes it more satiating. Strive for protein intake between 15%-30%. The exothermic part of protein limits its intake during tropical summers. In extreme winters protein intake can get a lot higher and will be helpful to deal with winters. The body on an average has the ability to digest 250 gms of protein, which depends on the excretion of nitrogen from the body.
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Fibers are more filling and good for the gut flora. The ability to digest fiber depends on the gut flora and the type of fiber. Generally you want a good mix. Normal humans can absorb 100gms per day, but you need to have adequate gut flora for it. It might take some time to build enough gut flora.
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There are some foods which are highly satiating. The foremost example is the potato. The potato hack is the fastest way of losing fat. It is difficult to consume more than 1200kcal from boiled and lightly seasoned potatoes, if no fat or other caloric additives are added.
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Lastly there is fasting. There are several fasting protocols which are used. The best seems to be eating in a small window. For example 16 hour fasting and 8 hour eating window. Another variation is fast5, which is a 5 hour eating window. Some people also do alternate day eating. The fasting protocol does not limit calories within the eating window, so you are never under eating for too long. It is generally good to sleep on a more or less empty stomach. ie Almost never have a big dinner. Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-48167474188731262552015-07-29T06:21:00.001-07:002015-07-29T06:21:28.096-07:00Heuristics for a healthy dietI think food is the largest amount of chemicals that we ingest. So food can have the most effect on our health. Unfortunately, doing long term double blinded clinical trials on each and every food item is prohibitively expensive, so the mainstream ignores food as having much effect on health. So all the nutritional information that we receive is through epidemiological (aka observational) studies. Unfortunately, epidemiological are known to be done in the cheapest possible way, which results in lots of bad data. The reason why they are used is that it is easier to get whatever information you want from them. Great for getting grants which are profitable and vast possibilities of generating papers. Even if epidemiological studies are done with great care they should only be used to generate hypothesis, which need to be tested with mice studies and finally with long term double blinded clinical trials before finally accepting it as a truth.<br />
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The other problem with individuals is that the response of each person to these chemicals is highly individual. In the case of medicines, there is an entity that wants positive outcomes, and many researchers will do indulge in malpractices to get the expected outcome. So its a very problematic condition in the medical world. Even animal studies tailor their studies to get pre expected results with 2-3 years, so they start with special mice and use special diets.<br />
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It is a hard problem for the person trying to determine what is good for them and what is not. The best option is to do your own n=1 study, and use those results. Of-course with these studies sometimes you end up with local maxima, which is not anywhere the real maxima.<br />
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Now the above would seem to be an intractable problem. But then you can employ some heuristics to select experiments that should be done to reach a better outcome than random testing. For me that heuristic is the Palaeolithic Principle. Generally our bodies have evolved over time, and it has evolved under selection pressure created by environment as well as diet (due to food availability). The last time humans moved out of Africa (where our ancestors evolved from our immediate predecessors), was around <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans">70,000years ago</a>. The adaptations at this point will be common to all people, but adaptations after this point may or may not be universal. So foods at this point should be good for us. The only trouble is that all the foods that we use today are highly evolved (artificially selected by humans) from those times. So we don't have the same foods, but the classes of foods should be generally similar. Also we can observe what other primitive societies eat, to determine what would be good for us.<br />
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Humans have been cooking for at least 200,000 years ago, so cooked food is a required part of the diet.<br />
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What we do know is that all these primitive societies eat a lot of fiber and FODMAPS. Much much more than what we eat today. They eat anywhere around 150gms, while we barely reach 25gm per day. This is a very big difference. We do need to note here that there are African peoples who have evolved separately from us, that have slightly bigger colon, which allows them to digest even more fiber. The<a href="http://re-evolutionary.com/2015/07/23/niue-adventures-part-3/"> 150gm number is from Polynesians</a>.<br />
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Another is that all of these societies eat meat, there are no vegan or even vegetarian societies. The actual amount varies a lot, from the Inuits (<a href="http://www.adn.com/article/20141129/clues-emerging-about-arctic-gene-diet-and-health">which eat mostly meat, and have a peculiar adaptation to high protein consumption for heat production</a>) to the Polynesians that eat very little meat/fish.<br />
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The majority of fiber was obtained from root vegetables, not from fruits or above ground vegetables or leaves. In fact eating leaf is not that common in traditional societies. There maybe a problem with trying to increase fiber without a healthy gut flora, so it might be a good idea to supplement with some good probiotic, while increasing fiber and FODMAPS. <a href="http://www.elixa-probiotic.com/">Elixa </a>is a very interesting probiotic.<br />
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The above is just an example of how you would explore this heuristic. The benefit is that you can also think of this heuristic for other parts of a lifestyle. Some examples below.<br />
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1) Exercise - Exercise in those times was basically hunting or gathering, or sometimes trying to save your life. They used to walk a lot, and at a fairly brisk speeds. Humans also are known to be able to hunt down deer just by outrunning them with their superior stamina. Look for persistence hunting. That would give you a clue what kind of exercises will be best for us.<br />
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2) Meal times - Humans had their biggest meal around sunset. We are talking about Africa only :-). They did not eat all the time. Breakfast would probably happen with leftovers and rest of the day it would be small snacks subject to availability.<br />
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3) Sleep - They would sleep not long after sunset, and wake up with sunrise.<br />
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4) Probiotics - Humans were not very clean they got dirt on all the foods they ate, and so got micro-organisms in their bodies all through their lives. Contrary to popular belief humans did not die that easily. The majority of deaths happened for children pre-puberty. If somebody reached adult hood they were likely to reach old age, barring accidents, or epidemics. The frequent reaching of old age was the reason why <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3433273/">women have menopause</a>. So the micro-organisms must have caused children to die but adults became resistant to most diseases and were able to live long lives. Also the healthful micro-organisms stayed in the gut and provided a lot of health benefits. The present population has very depleted gut flora, and this is possibly the major reason for some types of health problems, particularly related to auto-immune diseases. Also these may have a bearing on modern diseases of civilization, aka heart disease, diabetes and cancer. These are mostly non-existent in populations living traditional lives. It could be that the people who survived to adult hood were more resistant to these diseases as well.<br />
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If we try to tailor our lifestyle around such heuristics they will tend to work for us. You can then try to extend the framework to decide on what to do for adaptations that you might have due to your ancestors. The important part of ancestral diets is the way they combine or prepare a food. That method has a lot of impact on its healthfulness, as food tends to work best when they are not eaten in isolation, but in combinations. But be aware local cuisine of a society can change drastically within 50 years. So you have to be sure that the food items you are looking at are really old. In any case anything that has been there only been there less than 50 years is probably suspect.<br />
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For example wheat is traditionally cooked after fermenting it with yeast or yogurt. Also the wheat used to be freshly milled, and not to a very fine consistency. Then it was sieved to remove the husk. Lastly all societies eating <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_evolution/2012/10/evolution_of_lactose_tolerance_why_do_humans_keep_drinking_milk.html">wheat also ate milk</a> (obviously raw in those days). The last is a pretty interesting observation. Populations that don't eat wheat, are mostly not able to digest milk (lactose intolerance). My expectation is that there is something in wheat that required raw milk, and that adaptation was forced, when people started eating wheat. Another factor is that only Europeans who eat a lot of wheat have the kind of the <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2008/01/white-skin-wheat/">peculiar white skin</a>. No other people have this feature. Not the Inuits that never get sun or the middle eastern people who do get a lot of sun. I think it has to do with the combined effect of the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6299329">Vitamin D depletion capacity</a> of whole wheat and lack of sun all year round.<br />
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To conclude everybody must assess their lifestyle and determine ways to improve on it. How to do it is a hard task, as modern science gives very confusing signals regarding diet. The only possibility is to use a framework that allows one to experiment on themselves and come out with possible results that would benefit them greatly.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-38906033762631514702013-04-03T08:56:00.000-07:002013-04-03T08:56:09.745-07:00Understanding Nutrient cycle and its consequencesThe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrient_cycle">nutrient cycle</a> is very important for the continuation of life in any area. The loss of nutrients causes Deserts. Currently we believe that we can add any nutrients that plants need and do not really need a cycle to help us grow plants. This is a myth, as the inability to grow plants in barren lands shows.<br />
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Plants grow in the soil, which provides it several nutrients, and the major nutrients it gets from the air, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen. The micronutrients like calcium, magnesium etc, are not present in the air, and need to be recycled. In the prehistoric times there was no transportation. So plants and animals used to live in a geographically isolated areas. This tended to keep the nutrients in a balance.<br />
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But technological revolution has brought many improvements in transportation technology, and we get food from the world transported to every where. This has major implications for nutrient cycle.<br />
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Another major issue is understanding the nutrient cycle loops between plants and animals. Plants create most of the nutrients required for animals. When the plant dies the nutrients must be shunted back into the soil, so that it is available for the next generation of plants. Ultimately the decomposition happens through bacteria. But animals speed up the process quite substantially.<br />
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Bacteria need moisture for them to thrive, and break down substances. Moisture is not a problem in the sea. But its very important on the land. Animals provide a place for the bacteria to live, and provide them with the ideal breeding ground so that they can break down stuff much faster. Ultimately the plants need the nutrients the animal has absorbed from the plants. This is the reason plants thrive much better when they are grown together with animals.<br />
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Lets see what happens when we do not have animals where we grow plants. We need to put chemical fertilizers. These are only good to the point of our best understanding. Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief, scientists don't know all the nutrients that plants need. Also some of the nutrients, when created in factories are not nature identical but slightly different. This creates problem for the plants to utilize them.<br />
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Another big problem is that the major consumer of unrecycled nutrients is man. We do not feed the human waste back to the plants, because it is expensive, but we drain it out to the sea. We also drain out excess plant matter because we are not feeding them to the plants. This causes havoc in the sea, in the form of <a href="http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/why_habs.html">Algal blooms</a>.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-12224972397649836042013-02-27T20:20:00.001-08:002013-02-27T20:53:00.876-08:00Diabetes: Why you should critically analyze your doctors advice<b>I wrote the following as a note in facebook. I think it gives a very good idea of why and what a diabetic must do. My understanding has evolved since then, but I only make small modifications to it as it is still not wrong.</b><br />
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A friends father passed away today. It was a case of complications due to Diabetes. It resulted in Heart Attack.
His father did love meat, and he could have cured his disease if he could be convinced to not follow his doctors advice.<br />
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Diabetes is not an incurable disease, provided you understand why your doctor recommends the diet he does and why it is exactly the wrong kind of diet for Diabetes. Dr. Bernstein is a great example, of what can be done with patience and critical thinking.<br />
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Dr. Bernstein is a Type1 diabetes patient. He was diagnosed at 12 years of age. He discovered the cure for diabetes at the age of 35 when he got hold of a glucose meter. At that time he was suffering from ill health due to diabetes. When he discovered the cure, he stopped suffering and has been healthy since. He is now 76 years of age, and very active. He is still running his practice. In fact he is now at the age which is the average expected age for normal people. He wasn't a doctor to begin with, he became a doctor because he wanted to help other diabetes patients, and his cure was not accepted by other people. To be able to convince other people he studied to become a doctor.<br />
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Dr. Bernstein is living with this disease for the last 64 Years, of which the first 23 were without understanding and following his doctors advice. These 23 years were miserable. The next 41 years he has lived with his understanding and he is happy. How many people survive for 41 years with diabetes following their doctors advice? How many do it while enjoying life?<br />
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It is important to remember that Type1 diabetes is much worse than Type2. Type1 normally occurs due to an auto-immune condition, where the Beta cells in Pancreas have been killed. A Type1 is unable to produce sufficient insulin for signalling consumption of nutrients including glucose. A type1 diabetic is emanciated because he/she cannot store amino-acids to allow muscle growth, cannot store triglycerides to build fat storage, cannot store glycogen to allow heavy physical work. All in all they have a very difficult life. They need exogenous insulin to survive.<br />
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Type2 diabetes is a condition where the liver, muscles, fat cells have become resistant to insulin, and do not react to it. Some of it is due to the fact that muscles and liver are choc full of glucose and cannot accomodate anymore of it. Some of it is because the cells insulin receptors have been damaged. They are producing enough or maybe even a lot of insulin. That is not where the problem is. The solution given is metformin which acts like insulin but bypasses the resistance. This will work for some time. The other solution is exogenous insulin, which is like increasing the volume when you are going deaf. It works some time, and then you grow more resistant, just like growing more deaf with extra volume.<br />
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Most people are Type 2 Diabetics. Type1 normally happens to children, although the auto-immune attack can happen at any age, it is more likely to happen in children. If you got it at an old age, it is almost always going to be Type2. If Dr. Bernstein is still alive and healthy at a ripe old age of 76, even though he has Type1 diabetes, anybody with Type2 can do the same, more easily. You just need to understand the basics, and have the patience and resilience to avoid stuff that is bad for you.<br />
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Diabetes is one of the simpler diseases to understand. It is basically an inability to use glucose. The food we eat if it contains starch will convert to glucose in the body. The body normally reacts by storing the glucose as glycogen and converting the excess to fat and storing it as triglycerides in fat cells. A Type2 Diabetic person cannot store the glucose, because the cells do not see that there is glucose around. The liver does not see that there is glucose around. The result is that glucose stays high in the blood.<br />
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It is interesting to note that the ideal blood sugar level is 80mg/dl, and the max acceptable blood sugar level is 140mg/dl. Given that an average person has about 5ltrs of blood, these levels amount to 4gms and 7gms respectively. The difference between ideal and max is just 3gms, which is about a half teaspoon of sugar. So we do not want to eat anything that will provide this much sugar, at a fast rate. The recommendation of low glycemic dieting and eating multiple times a day arrives from this fact. But the real information is lost, that 3gms is the limit.<br />
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A healthy persons body will be able to get rid of 200gms of sugar in one hour, stored as glycogen. But this does not apply to a diabetic person. Typically, they are not even able to store 10gms in an hour. Given that even low glycemic foods do not have a peak that lasts for more than an hour, it is highly recommended to check with a glucose meter, when the peak occurs for each food, and take care to consume only the amount of carbs that will not cause a peak higher than 140mg/dl. This is time consuming, painful, but the only effective method of controlling diabetes.<br />
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An easy solution obviously is to not eat anything that will convert to glucose. This may sound easy to do but it has pitfalls here. If you do not eat carbs, the blood sugar level can drop to dangerous levels, because the liver does not see that there is too little glucose in the blood. It is the task of liver to supply glucose when it is running low. This makes it quite dangerous to not eat glucose.<br />
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The minimum daily requirement of glucose is about 50gms, provided atleast 100gms of protein is eaten everyday. A diet which provides these would be able to keep diabetes in check, without any bad effects. The carbs should be split into 4-6 meals and snacks, separated at equal intervals. At 5 meals it would be 10gms per meal. Another interesting thing to note is that the stomach delays emptying with protein or fat is present in the meal or snack. It does not do so unfortunately for carbs, as it cannot do any digestion for them. Protein and Fat need to be carefully split into smaller components before releasing which reduces the rate at which stomach empties.<br />
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A mixed snack/meal with a small amount of carbs with fat and proteins, eaten at regular intervals would be very helpful in keeping the blood sugar level constant the whole day. It would avoid precipituous falls and high peaks.<br />
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In the initial period the glycogen stores are full. This means that requirement of glucose will be much lower. This is the reason that Atkins diet called for a Initiation Phase where 20gms of Nett carbs (basically fiber) was only allowed. During this phase liver and muscle glycogen gets utilized. A side effect of this for diabetics is to increase insulin sensitivity. Also a side effect of a high fat low carb and moderate protein diet is that you lose appetite. This would mean that you will lose weight.<br />
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Another pitfall in switching to this diet is that any insulin or metformin must be stopped or reduced, as they would cause the blood sugar level to drop too much. This does require the experience of a doctor, who has worked with this kind of diet. Or the patient must take a lot of risks, just like Dr. Bernstein did. His books will help understand the problem, and provide a method to fix it. So read it carefully, if you can't find a helpful doctor.<br />
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The above still does not explain why fat will not be harmful even though everybody claims that the fats are the devils.<br />
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Firstly, carbs are the overriding problem here. Nobody says that you will die immediately if you eat a lot of fat. But a diabetic will die if he/she eats a lot of carbs.<br />
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Second if you have read the above carefully, you would have noticed that carbs can convert to fat, and it converts to saturated fat, a particular fat called Palmitic Acid. Everybody who calls fat bad, they call saturated fat super bad. And carbs do convert into saturated fats. So by that logic carbs are super bad. But rest assured our body is not trying to kill us by creating saturated fats. It creates saturated fats because it is very stable, and it has a high energy density, so that it can store lots of energy safely. So carbs are not a problem because the body neutralizes it as saturated fat. This does mean that Saturated fat is not a bad thing to eat. It is logical, but most people (including doctors) are not very strong in logic.<br />
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Glucose to fat conversion happens only in people that are gaining weight. This happens for people who are losing their insulin sensitivity. Normally Liver and muscle cells lose sensitivity first and fat cells last. So these people tend to gain weight, till the point that fat cells lose sensitivity. At which point they move into diabetic phase.<br />
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Thirdly protein can convert to glucose, but do so only when glucose is required, so exceeding the limits of proteins will not have a detrimental effect on glucose control. In fact there are some proteins that do not convert to glucose. Eating more of these would be helpful. These are lysine and leucine, and are found in BCAA mixes that body builders use to enhance performance. Still making protein a very large part of the diet will be problematic.<br />
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There are some other considerations but those are minor. Supplementing Magnesium and Chromium helps improve insulin sensitivity. Omega3 supplements (such as fish oil) are also very helpful. As also is avoiding any concentrated source of omega6. If an oil contains more than 10% Omega6 avoid it, or keep the consumption below a tea spoon per day of all such oils. The best oils are ghee, butter, coconut oil, olive oil, palm kernel oil, High Oleic Sunflower oil, and animal fats. There are some others which are much more expensive.<br />
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The bottom line is that Diabetes requires some sacrifice. If you equate Food with Living then unfortunately, there is no solution for you. You are bound to suffer, and you can only hope for a quick death in the form of a heart attack, rather than lose the kidneys and the be on dialysis for a long time. If you have diabetes, hopefully this article has provided you with some pointers, and a drive to analyze your situation critically.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-17804838677640478592013-02-06T23:21:00.001-08:002013-02-06T23:21:32.508-08:00Do heart patients have high cholesterol?We always hear from our doctors how high cholesterol will cause you to get heart disease. This would imply that people getting into hospitals due to heart disease, would have a high cholesterol. I would have thought that this would be the first thing to test. But the medical world works in mysterious ways.<br />
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There has been a <a href="http://www.ahjonline.com/article/S0002-8703(08)00717-5/abstract">2008 paper</a> where the cholesterol values of the people entering hospitals due to heart disease was collected. These people collected data from 1,36,905 hospitalizations. Luckily the paper is freely available online. Following is the most interesting image from the paper.<br />
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<a href="http://download.journals.elsevierhealth.com/images/journalimages/0002-8703/PIIS0002870308007175.gr1.lrg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://download.journals.elsevierhealth.com/images/journalimages/0002-8703/PIIS0002870308007175.gr1.lrg.jpg" width="152" /></a></div>
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We can see by extrapolating from the bars, that about 50% of the people have the following ranges of Cholesterol values. Unfortunately they did not do men and women separately, as <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2753.2011.01767.x/pdf">another paper</a> has shown that cholesterol response varies a lot between men and women. I have written <a href="http://mostlyvegpaleo.blogspot.in/2013/01/the-hunt2-study-is-cholesterol-bad-for.html">an article</a> on the paper.<br />
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LDL - 75-125<br />
HDL - 30-45<br />
Triglycerides - 80-160<br />
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They did not measure VLDL, which is normally tracks Triglycerides.<br />
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Now one can see that the cholesterol is perfectly within guidelines given by the Doctors. The HDL is a bit lower. The paper also noted this fact but then recommended that the guidelines need to be lowered. This makes no sense, because they have not yet established that people without heart disease have lower cholesterol.<br />
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Following is an attempt to find cholesterol data for all american people, not just stricken with heart disease.<br />
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I searched for American research papers or data giving a similar graph for normal people. Unfortunately, I cannot find anything recent. The closest we have is the data from <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_11/sr11_242.pdf">1976-80</a>. I also found data from <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad007acc.pdf">1971-74</a>, and <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_11/sr11_022.pdf">1960-62</a>. The govt has stopped collecting the data in this format. I wonder why :-). The same problem is with the BHF heart stats from UK. Unfortunately the only data which we can use is the first one, as the other two do not give the data for all adults, they segregate it into males and females. Also we want the most recent data, so we will look at the 1976-80 data.<br />
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So lets see how the data looks like. Again the range of cholesterol for 50% of the population.<br />
TC - 179-239<br />
HDL - 37-51<br />
Non-HDL - 131-195<br />
Triglycerides - 84-168<br />
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There are not too many points of comparison. Triglycerides are very similar. HDL levels are quite a bit lower in the people with heart disease. Non-HDL includes LDL and VLDL. VLDL is normally a very small number, and is directly dependent on the Triglycerides. Even if we remove a small amount for the VLDL, we still have a very low values for LDL cholesterol in the people with heart disease. Now it is also possible, that LDL has reduced for all the people, due to the dietary measures applied by the normal public. Unfortunately we cannot compare newer numbers, as the govts do not measure the current distribution of cholesterol. The numbers they collect are pretty useless for making any inferences.<br />
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If the LDL numbers have really dropped so drastically, we should see a large drop in heart disease incidence, because of the reduced LDL. Unfortunately, that is not the case.<br />
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We can see that the incidence of heart disease has remained nearly same, since 1980, from when we see the data. The mortality has reduced but that is probably due to better patient care and new surgical methods and technologies. Some of the rise in the incidence can also be attributed to better diagnosis.<br />
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Unfortunately, lack of recent data makes it difficult to have a proper conclusion. But the available data is not positive for the current cholesterol hypothesis.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-4827846384944113832013-02-06T03:56:00.001-08:002013-02-07T06:37:56.847-08:00Understanding StressI believe that Stress is the most important factor in our health. It is very important to understand what it is and that will hopefully help you control it. Controlling it obviously requires help from your family, will power, and circumstances.<br />
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There are two types of stress, short term and long term. Short term stress causes the body to take several measures to deal with it. In general these measures improve the body. It is called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormesis">Hormesis</a>. The stress if it continues too long wears down the defenses of the body, and causes long term damage. There is a saying "If something doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger". The implied thing in the saying is that whatever that something was did stop at some point. This saying is about short term stress.<br />
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It is very important to subject your body to short term stress. But for each short term stress there must be a period that does not have that stress. The stronger the short term stress the shorter it should be. The stronger the short term stress the stronger the benefits will be. The stronger the short term stress the longer the recovery will need to be.<br />
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Stresses can be divided into two groups, physiological and psychological. The body is managed by the brain. Psychological stresses cause indirect stress to the body, and cause physiological stresses. The same thing happens in the other way as well. The body cannot be split into two parts in that way, so it is not worth splitting the stresses this way.<br />
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Stresses can also be broadly classified into the following types.<br />
1) Physical - Cuts, bruises, fatigue, exercise, etc.<br />
2) Food - fasting, overeating, toxins in food and due to pesticides, lack of nutrients, etc.<br />
3) Environmental - pollution, infections, chemical use at home and in kitchen, etc.<br />
4) Circadian Rhythm - Lack of sleep, doing things at wrong time, no sun, etc.<br />
5) Mental - Deadlines, inter personal, lack of vacations, over work, worry, etc.<br />
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Stresses cause harm to the body if they continue for long. It is important to take vacations to de-stress. Take time off to do something that you enjoy. Some people are able to switch off and do something else. These people will be able to de-stress more easily than other people.<br />
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Physical form of stresses can de-stress psychological ones. ie Exercising can take mind off deadlines and other work or family related stresses.<br />
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Basically you want to keep your stresses short term. You may have to take drastic actions, if you are not able to do that, for your long term health.<br />
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Some things that you can do without changing your lifestyle much, while still having a large impact on your life.<br />
1) Do some exercise: You don't need to do lot of exercise. Something is better than nothing. Remember, if you keep it very intense a short one will require a long break :-). So keep your exercise short and intense. Pushups and situps are good enough, and you can do them anywhere. The trick is to make it intense.<br />
2) Switch oils: Remove refined oils, and bring in ghee/coconut oil/unrefined mustard and other traditional oils. Prefer to use ghee/coconut oil when ever possible.<br />
3) Reduce quantity of grains/legumes: Prefer larger portions of vegetables and meat over grains and legumes.<br />
4) Make a habit of eating curd/pickles: Reduce spices in your vegetables and replace with pickles, hopefully home made :-). This will also allow you to eat more vegetables. Use vinegar, lemon juice and other sour fruits for the sour flavor. It helps improve digestion, and better sleep.<br />
5) Take vacations: This is very important. Relax or do something relaxing over weekends. If the job does not allow that, check if you are stressed due to the job.<br />
6) Reduce chemical use at home: Try to use less chemicals, particularly those that you are using to kill bacteria/germs. Bacteria are good for you.<br />
7) Sleep: Try to sleep early, and get a good night sleep. 7-8 hours is best. Eat lesser in the evening or eat it early enough, so that the stomach is restful during sleep.<br />
8) Fast: Fast intermittently. Its easier to do it by delaying breakfast and skipping meals. Remember doing it from the dinner adds your sleeping time to the fast.<br />
9) Get some sun, or get a Vit D gelcap.<br />
10) Try to find organic vegetables and meats. Preferable is to get underground and leafy vegetables as organic. Avoid chicken (unless free range aka desi), prefer mutton.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-53326066630772760512013-02-01T01:07:00.000-08:002013-02-01T01:07:16.849-08:00A Success StoryI had come across a Facebook entry from Vijayalaxmi, about her headaches while exercising. I thought it had to be due to a low fat diet. This turned out to be true. Then we started chatting about her health, and what could be done about it. She turned around her diet completely, and now feels much better. Below is Vijayalaxmi about her journey.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">MY JOURNEY TO WELLNESS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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I am a 41 year old female and my weight loss journey started
in 2003, when I had decided it was high time I shed the post-partum weight.
Initially, I started a ‘no white’ diet, which became a lifestyle change for a
decade (until a few months back)- I would not eat sugar, processed flour and
rice. I ate a lot of vegetables, sprouts and chapattis. I was a vegetarian. I
used to workout (yes consistency was my plus point). Things were all fine,
until I hit the plateau. So, I started reducing my portions. I stopped having
ghee, butter, cheese or any goodies. I lived on fruits day in and day out. It
satisfied my sugar urge. I was happy to that extent. If I felt very hungry, I
would have tea and biscuits/brown bread, because I thought I got my nutrition
from fruits. I would eat rice/chapatti once a week, otherwise no junk food.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The problem I had was, I was beginning to gain weight after
a decade- with all the low calorie/natural fruit diet and exercise. Also, I was
slowing down on my workouts, until I stopped them, because I used to get
pounding headaches. I had migraines (supposedly) for the past 8-9 years. They
would recur once a week and as a working woman, who had to manage family and
also earn more academic degrees, it was really really tough. Over a period of
time I would get headaches even if I walked for 10 mins. My eyesight would blur,
I developed dry skin psoriasis and I felt tired and drained all the time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This was towards the mid of 2012. I was desperately
searching for help. My family of doctors and other ‘specialist’ docs passed it
on as ‘came with age, will go with age’. Just eat a painkiller to relieve
headache (that would mean approximately 15 tabs a month). <o:p></o:p></div>
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It was during this time that I stumbled upon Anand Srivastava,
who offered help, which changed my perception towards food and life. He sent me
a ppt of his weight loss journey. I could relate to his internal inflammations
and I was secretly glad, that I was not the only one undergoing this gradual
deterioration. I religiously followed his advice and suggestions, which included
becoming an omnivore (it was my personal choice to take his suggestions
seriously). Based on his advice, I started eating eggs, poultry and fish. I
added a lot of ghee to my food. Anand was encouraging me to add more ghee to my
food! I stopped vegetable oils and used a range of oils to cook (peanut oil,
mustard oil, gingelly oil, olive oil and coconut oil and of course lots and
lots of ghee). I added a lot of vegetables (cooked and uncooked ), coconut and
also potatoes and sweet potatoes to my diet- it was like karma, I owed my body
all that I had deprived it from. Slowly I started intermittent fasting- 14
hours, 16 hours, 20 hours and now 24 hours.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Within a month, I lost 5 kgs, without any workouts and by
eating well. I was 69 kgs then, and now I wobble around 64-65 kgs. Weight loss
was not my agenda, when I spoke to Anand. It was actually reducing the symptoms
of all internal inflammations, which I think I achieved. Today, I eat healthy
and clean, I lift weights 5-6 times a week and I have so much more energy. No
more blurring of vision or headaches while doing workouts. My phobia for food
is gone. Of course, I don’t eat samosas, bhajjias, murukku or any deep fried
stuff (thankfully, I don’t like them). I do eat some sweetmeat every other day. I am able to bear hunger. Food is not an emergency.
I do a 24 hour fast at least once a week- and that’s an incredible achievement
for me (previously, I had to eat every 2-3 hours; else I would get a headache).
This fasting has reduced my psoriasis incredibly. I don’t know the connection
or link, but this is a reality, which I am observing very carefully. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Basically, I have learnt to listen to my body and respect
it. I don’t deny myself anything anymore. I am glad; my body is responsible
enough to ask only real food. One day, I felt a strong urge to eat bananas (I
was a bit depressed) - I just went on a banana eating spree 3-4 at one shot. May
be my body needs some nutrient that’s found in banana and I am not able to pick
the signal!<o:p></o:p></div>
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The one advice, which I have still not followed, is that of
oral supplements. I think it’s a question of time. I am gorging on all that can
be eaten, so that my body can absorb all that was denied to it. I am forever
indebted to Anand for having shown me the way to a healthy life and helping me
regain my energy. I have come to believe that traditional ways of eating are
the best, because, most of all that he says is practiced by elders at home
(except for the non-veg part). So what started as a weight loss journey has
actually become a journey of wellness.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-78618225438622204152013-01-21T22:30:00.001-08:002013-01-21T23:08:10.606-08:00The HUNT2 study: Is Cholesterol bad for you?Does Cholesterol cause heart disease? The common man think it does. Most doctors also believe the same. Unfortunately there have been no studies that specifically test the relationship
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Norway conducted a 10 year long study named <a href="http://www.ntnu.edu/hunt">HUNT2</a>. The <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2753.2011.01767.x/pdf">results were published</a> in 2011.
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The Study followed up 52,087 people between 20-74 years of age, between years 1995-2007. They specifically looked at the mortality (ie the number of people who died), and its relation to the total cholesterol values. They also checked the mortality for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischaemic_heart_disease">Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD)</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiovascular_disease">CardioVascular Disease (CVD)</a>. CVD is for all heart diseases and IHD is specifically for reduced supply to the heart which results in heart attacks.
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There are 3 graphs which we will see below. The graphs show the mortality rate at different Cholesterol values. The values are given in mmol/litre, instead of the mg/dl that we are used to. The conversion would be 5 -> 193; 6 -> 232 ; 7 -> 270. Remember that people are asked to keep their Cholesterol values below 200mg/dl.<br />
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The first graph is for Total Mortality.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNRM3UzyKuaxLggb7DdyyBKY-ELgVuOEnaakInPb0556H7KImC98XT7S38K8FYEh2RCiZSyIAvHjVTbOtrHhRmct0cqihR8tTTb83el5vMgHl3DP353K5BhOb-DqDCuXvIcnOwHcv73azf/s1600/JEP_1767_f2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNRM3UzyKuaxLggb7DdyyBKY-ELgVuOEnaakInPb0556H7KImC98XT7S38K8FYEh2RCiZSyIAvHjVTbOtrHhRmct0cqihR8tTTb83el5vMgHl3DP353K5BhOb-DqDCuXvIcnOwHcv73azf/s320/JEP_1767_f2.gif" width="302" /></a></div>
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For men the best value was 193-232, the worst was below 193. Above 232 the death instances increased but not as much as they increased below 193. I have no idea why there are no range for 5.0 and less.
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For women, total deaths were lowest above 270mg/dl, it was a nearly linear reverse relationship with total cholesterol. The worst result was below 193.
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The second graph is mortality risk by CVD.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU8LYl-CgJhT5l-IHRofKnolmSNR5F9FdKYCiUtAL0fG7CNJQFDj-RqGG2vU_4P3MShNuCP72fAhqy2N41_PCu1Kg1ALPFSqnZpsB2IwR0H1qrIu-1mUwoqEgw2-b-Xd8kAp2qI0lfjDS2/s1600/JEP_1767_f3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU8LYl-CgJhT5l-IHRofKnolmSNR5F9FdKYCiUtAL0fG7CNJQFDj-RqGG2vU_4P3MShNuCP72fAhqy2N41_PCu1Kg1ALPFSqnZpsB2IwR0H1qrIu-1mUwoqEgw2-b-Xd8kAp2qI0lfjDS2/s320/JEP_1767_f3.gif" width="305" /></a></div>
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For men the best value was again 193-232, the worst was above 232. Above 232 the death instances increased more than below 193.<br />
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For women the best result was between 232-270. The worst result was below 193. Between 193-232 was slightly worse than 232-270.
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Last graph is mortality risk due to IHD.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqwDlfZCulc6UlzW_7h8tfa5znf3omYGySioponW3FAilcIUU3W5krcqMDZWMxY1WJFDIQks_L9wtJCFwL1U2hnzlc_bzZ3ilM8UqMhefHZQyuYxsL9KkqeYJH0ylls9T055f-TQFfs7d3/s1600/JEP_1767_f4.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqwDlfZCulc6UlzW_7h8tfa5znf3omYGySioponW3FAilcIUU3W5krcqMDZWMxY1WJFDIQks_L9wtJCFwL1U2hnzlc_bzZ3ilM8UqMhefHZQyuYxsL9KkqeYJH0ylls9T055f-TQFfs7d3/s320/JEP_1767_f4.gif" width="308" /></a></div>
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IHD for men does give a worst outcome when the Total Cholesterol level increases beyond 232mg/dl. But 193-232 range is slightly better than the lower than 193 case.<br />
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For women again the worst case is to have lower than 193mg/dl.
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From the conclusion
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Based on epidemiological analysis of updated and comprehensive population data, we found that the underlying assumptions regarding cholesterol in clinical guidelines for CVD prevention might be flawed: cholesterol emerged as an overestimated risk factor in our study, indicating that guideline information might be misleading, particularly for women with ‘moderately elevated’ cholesterol levels in the range of 5–7 mmol L. Our findings are in good accord with some previous studies. A potential explanation of the lack of accord between clinical guidelines and recent population data, including ours, is time trend changes for CVD/IHD and underlying causal (risk) factors.
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘Know your numbers’ (a concept pertaining to medical risk factor levels, including cholesterol) is currently considered part of responsible citizenship, as well as an essential element of preventive medical care. Many individuals who could otherwise call themselves healthy struggle conscientiously to push their cholesterol under the presumed ‘danger’ limit (i.e. the recommended cut-off point of 5 mmol L), coached by health personnel, personal trainers and caring family members. Massive commercial interests are linked to drugs and other remedies marketed for this purpose. It is therefore of immediate and wide interest to find out whether our results are generalizable to other populations.
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This paper shows us that the current guidelines are flawed at least in the Norway. Is it possible that the commercial interest have somehow influenced the too low cholesterol guidelines?<br />
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It seems important for women to keep their cholesterol numbers HIGHER, even if it might not be very clear for men. It seems that the best range for men is between 190 to 230, while for women the best range is bigger from 230-270.<br />
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Similar range (200-240) can be seen in the following graph. The graph was constructed using the Mortality data from WHO (2002) and Total Cholesterol data from <a href="http://www.bhf.org.uk/research/heart-statistics.aspx">BHF-HeartStats</a> (2005). The data is per country in both the cases. Its a big image, and blogger does not provide zoom facility, so right click and open in new tab.<br />
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<br />Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-48010264526316541332012-09-25T23:43:00.001-07:002012-09-25T23:43:10.632-07:00Ghee: Food of Gods.I have a new <a href="http://www.esvasa.com/?q=Health-benefits-ghee">article </a>at <a href="http://esvasa.com/">esvasa.com</a>. Check it out.<br />
<br />Ghee can only be described in superlatives. It has a very important place in our Culture. It is called one of the 5 Amrits which are must when preparing prasad during festivals. Its required to burn Ghee diyas at all Hindu festivals. It is essential in "Havanas". It is mixed with honey and given to a newly born infant during the Naming Ritual aka "Namkaran Sanskar". It was the most preferred weaning food in the past. It is also required for burning a dead body during the "Dah Sanskar". It is required in our culture literally from cradle to grave.<br />
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Butter is also considered important in other dairy based cultures.<br />
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In <a href="http://www.ayurhelp.com/ayurveda/ayurvedaghee.htm">Ayurveda</a>, it is considered the best form of fat, above butter. No meal is considered balanced without ghee. It is said to ignite the fires of digestion, so that the food digests properly. It is also said to balance Vata and Pitta Doshas, and must be avoided when Kapha dosha is dominant. It is said to be very important for the development of brain, intelligence and memory power. It is said to be very good for the skin, eyesight and bones.<br />
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But modern medicine calls it the worst fat. It is said to be high in Saturated fat and Cholesterol, both are supposed to cause heart disease, diabetes and other diseases.<br />
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So how do we reconcile the two. Obviously one position is wrong. Ayurveda's position is based on observation of the whole body. Modern Medicine's position is based on looking at just two things Saturated Fats and Cholesterol. In my opinion the Modern Medicine, misses the forest for the trees. It is so intent on looking at things from the bottom up that it fails to see the over all effect.<br />
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Contrary to Modern Medicine's expectation due to Saturated Fat and Cholesterol content, Ghee is not associated with increase in LDL Cholesterol. I have personally experienced it. My HDL increased and LDL reduced. This has been observed in <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22131700">studies </a>too. In fact if you search for Ghee and cholesterol most of the articles talk about how it does not increase cholesterol. The only <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2887943">study</a> on the first page stating otherwise is highly speculative, and does not account for a change of diet from mostly natural food to mostly packaged food.</div>
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There are several studies and individual reports from people who know nothing about Ayurveda and are Medical doctors and scientists who have endorsed several of the properties given by Ayurveda.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Bones, Teeth, Eyesight, and Skin</b></span></div>
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Dr. Weston A Price was a dentist in the early 19th century. He went across the world searching for people who had the best teeth and bone structures. He also studied the diet of such people. He later devised a medicine for fixing teeth. It was made up of Cod Liver Oil and Ghee (Butter oil as he called it). His research was published as a book called <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html">Nutrition and Physical Degeneration</a>. His work agrees with Ayurveda that Ghee is very important for building healthy bones.</div>
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At the time of Dr. Price, the factor in Ghee which caused the development of strong bones was not known. But now it is found to be <a href="http://www.dougcookrd.com/2012/04/vitamin-k2-benefits-the-new-anti-aging-nutrient/">Vitamin K2</a>. Ghee is quite high in MK4 version of Vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 has been found to be very important in Calcium metabolism. When there is enough Vitamin K2, the Calcium goes into bones and does not deposit in arteries or any other places. It reduces <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19179058">plaques </a>and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15886487">calcification</a>.</div>
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Vitamin K2 is also associated with a softer skin. This effect is quite easily seen, when supplementing with Vitamin K2. Remember Ghee contains more Vitamin K2 if the cows ate grass.</div>
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Ghee also contains some preformed Vitamin A, which will be helpful for the eyesight. Ghee from Pastured cows is richer in Vitamin A. It also contains some beta carotene which gives it a golden yellowish color.</div>
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So we have seen above that the single factor Vitamin K2 provides multiple benefits, better bones, low calcification, better eyesight and a softer skin that resists wrinkling. As a bonus it also prevents heart disease, by reducing calcification of the arteries. Heart Disease was probably not very common in Ayurvedic times, so they didn't notice this effect.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Digestion</b></span></div>
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Ghee is also the fat that is highest in Short Chain Fatty Acids, particularly Butyric Acid. <a href="http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.in/2009/12/butyric-acid-ancient-controller-of.html">SCFA's</a> are known to feed, lubricate and heal the walls of the intestines, and hence improve digestion. Ghee contains about 10% short and medium chain fatty acids. These fats are very easy to digest. This property makes Ghee very easy to digest compared to other fats. Coconut oil has too much Medium chains which is not handled well by everybody. </div>
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The primary benefit of fibers in the body is to feed the bacteria in the intestines and colon. The bacteria produce the SCFA, which helps the intestines remain healthy. This effect maybe impaired for people with gut dysbiosis and other digestive disorders. In these cases Ghee is a very good substitute for SCFA from fiber. Fermented foods like curd also provide some SCFAs.</div>
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The SCFA, Butyric Acid and the moderate amount of medium chain fats, makes Ghee the ideal food for a good digestion, as has been observed by Ayurveda.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Brain, Memory, and Intelligence</b></span></div>
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Unfortunately there has not been any research on the effects of Ghee on the brain, memory and intelligence. But one scientist (not a medical researcher) <a href="http://blog.sethroberts.net/">Seth Roberts</a>, who measures everything he does, has found that of all the different foods he tried, <a href="http://blog.sethroberts.net/category/animal-fat/butter/">butter</a> gives the <a href="http://blog.sethroberts.net/2011/11/25/butter-and-arithmetic-how-much-butter/">biggest boost to his mental capacity</a>. One reader actually conducted an experiment with 45 volunteers and compared Coconut oil with Butter. Result was Butter improved memory function while Coconut oil had no effect.</div>
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If I am to guess why butter helps brain more than other fats, it would be the fact that Brains and neurons are made up of Saturated fats and cholesterol. Butter has both. The grass fed versions of butter or ghee also have a good amount of DHA, EPA, and Arachidonic Acid, which are also required by neurons. The exact ratios may be the best in Ghee and Butter, compared to other fats.</div>
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Although there is not enough information about this particular property of Ghee, but it is quite possible that Ayurveda is right about this fact.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Vegetarians</b></span><br />
Vegetarians do not eat animal products except milk, and possibly eggs. For people not eating eggs, the only source of preformed fat soluble vitamins, like Vitamin A and K2, and also preformed DHA, EPA, and Arachidonic Acid is Dairy fat, particularly Ghee. Since India is the only country with very large number of Vegetarian people, there must have been enabling factors. I believe one of the most important enabling factor apart from around the year Sun is Dairy tolerance. Milk also provides Vitamin B12 and Zinc, which are quite a bit lower in Vegetarian foods. Ghee by providing the number of important fats and fat soluble vitamins assumes a much greater importance for Vegetarians.<br />
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It is possible that the emphasis Ayurveda places on Ghee is because at the time of Charak and Dhanvantari, India had substantial number of Vegetarians at least in the Brahmin class.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Conclusion</b></span></div>
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Ghee really is very good for the body. If you are a vegetarian, then it becomes even more important for you. Ayurveda developed in a period when Hindus were living a vegetarian life, and the authors knew how important Ghee was for the vegetarians. So for your own health eat ghee at all meals. Try to get pastured cow's ghee, which is much more healthy compared to ghee from normal farmed cows.</div>
Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-18213033084310964502012-09-06T02:21:00.000-07:002018-04-19T03:47:40.360-07:00A crash course in FatsThis article will be a bit dense, as crash courses go :-), but I will summarize at the end for simplified guidelines.<br />
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The fats can be broadly classified into 3 types based on their saturation levels. The Saturated Fats (SFA), the Mono-Unsaturated Fats (MUFA), and the Poly-Unsaturated Fats (PUFA). As any chemistry student will tell you, the higher the unsaturation the lower the stability of the fat. So PUFA are the most unstable and SFA are the most stable.<br />
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A good rule of thumb is to use high heat only on SFA and MUFA fats. PUFA fats should not be heated as far as possible. I am ignoring the fact that all oils/fats that you will buy on the market or get in real life will be a combination of all sorts of fats. I will get back to it later.<br />
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SFA fats can be further broken down into 3 types based on the length of the carbon chains. Chains shorter than 8 carbon atoms are called Short chain fats (SCFA). 16 and above are considered to be long chain (LCFA). The ones in the middle are called Medium Chain Fats (MCFA). The three fats have slightly different use in the body. The SCFA are generally used by the digestive system (gut) as food, and much of it gets used there. These are also created by the bacteria in the gut by decomposing fiber. Butyric acid which gives Butter its distinctive smell is a SCFA. The MCFA are broken down into ketones by the liver and are used for energy immediately. Lauric Acid is the major component of Coconut oil and is an MCFA. LCSFA are primarily stored and then used while fasting. Most fats in meat are LCFA, both SFA and MUFA. The LCFA are also used in the body to provide structure. These have a high melting point and form the bulk of cells, neurons, and cholesterol. These are also required for hormone production.<br />
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The MUFA are of two types the Long chains and the medium chains. The long chains again can be stored and the medium chains are used immediately for energy. The predominant long chain is Oleic Acid, the major constituent of Olive oil. The Oleic acid is also called Omega9. The medium chain MUFA are not very common. These are as far as I know used primarily for energy. Primarily natural MUFA are cis fats, while artificially created MUFA are generally trans fats. Cis fats have a bend at the point of unsaturation, but transfats don't. So they behave like SFA. These transfats are solid at room temperature, just like Saturated fats, and are confused with saturated fats. These are bad for the body, as the body can confuse it with saturated fats, and use these wrongly.<br />
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The PUFA are primarily divided into 2 types, Omega3s and Omega6s. Omega3s are fats that have its first unsaturation at 3-4 carbon from tail. Omega 6s have them at 6-7. Oleic acid (olive oil) has it at 9-10 and so is also called Omega 9. Omega3s generally have more unsaturated bonds than Omega6s. So in effect Omega3s are even more unstable than Omega6s. Much of the Omega3s and Omega6s cannot be created in the body (so are called essential fats), although the body can increase the chain length, to create longer chains. PUFA are very unstable. This fact is used by the body, for communication. These are primarily used on the cell walls as receptor sites. These are not used for energy. Some of the Omega3s are used for anti-inflammatory signalling and some Omega6s are used for Inflammatory signalling, both are 20 carbon LCFAs called ecosanoids. Some Omega3s are required for brain development, EPA and DHA.<br />
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The anti-inflammatory and inflammatory signalling factor means that you want to have a balance of Omega3s and Omega6s. A higher level of Omega6, compared to Omega3 will induce high levels of inflammation. Excess of inflammatory signal can thicken the blood. A higher level of Omega6 will reduce the level of inflammatory signalling, one side effect is that blood clotting stops working effectively. It is best to keep TOTAL Omega3:Omega6 consumption ratio in between 2:1 and <->1:2. It is generally difficult to get Omega3s from plants. There are a few exceptions like Flax seeds. Be careful with high PUFA oils (including cod liver oil), you should keep them in the fridge to prevent damage.</-><br />
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The inability to use it for fuel also means that the consumption of PUFA should be very low. There are indications that Omega6 consumption should not <a href="http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.in/2009/05/eicosanoids-and-ischemic-heart-diseas.html">exceed 4%</a>, ideally it should be at 2% of total energy consumption. This is quite low, around 2gms in a diet of 1800kcal. Also remember you do get some PUFA from your food.<br />
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Also remember that Vitamin E keeps the Unsaturated fats stable. So it is best to get some Vitamin E when consuming high PUFA fats. Unrefined oils generally have enough Vitamin E to keep the PUFA intact at room temperatures.<br />
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Our body fat depends on our diet. On a low PUFA diet, it resembles the content of Red Meat, which is about 50/50 division of LCSFA and LCMUFA. The ruminants (eg cow, goat) can convert the PUFA into stable fats so their fat content does not depend much on the PUFA content of the diet. Non-ruminants also have body fat depending on PUFA content, eg birds, pigs, horses, etc.<br />
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Seeds are generally higher in PUFA, with a very few exceptions, eg Coconuts.<br />
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Now that you have a rough idea of what different fats are, you can have a look at this <a href="http://www.chempro.in/fattyacid.htm">table</a>, for the constituents of different oils. Unfortunately it does not list the animal fats, but it contains a lot of the plant fats.<br />
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The C number in the fatty acid composition section, gives you the type of the fatty acid. The table does not list any number below C8, which means that plants fats rarely have any short chain fatty acids. You will also note that they are all in even numbers. There are some with a colon, eg C18:1, C18:2, C18:3. These indicate the degree of desaturation, ie there is 1, 2, or 3 unsaturated bonds. C18:2 is an Omega6 and C18:3 is an Omega3.<br />
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Before we get into dissecting each common oils and fats, one word of caution. Fats are essentially nutrient free, except for some fat soluble vitamins. These vitamins are important, but its best to get them from whole foods. Added fats should be avoided generally, just like low nutrient grains/legumes should be avoided. There maybe some conditions in which some particular fats can help.<br />
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Now lets try to use the above given information on the different common oils.<br />
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1) Coconut oil: Around 80% of the fats are Medium chains, and only 20% is long chain. There is some MUFA, but PUFA is very very little. As we know that Medium chains don't get stored, so it would be difficult to gain weight if Coconut oil is the main calorie source. Also PUFA is very low, so it is the ideal frying oil. It will not go bad easily. At around 1% PUFA, you could have it as much as you want, without overshooting the PUFA budget. You will note that Palm Kernel oil has very similar characteristics. It is IMO ideal for fat loss.<br />
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2) Ground nut oil: Around 60% MUFA, 20% PUFA. Wikipedia gives a bigger number for PUFA (32%). Assuming that it has been used a lot in our traditional diets, it should have been low in PUFA. So I would go with the numbers given in this paper. at 20% PUFA it would be a fairly stable fat for cooking, but not frying. The fact that all of the PUFA is Omega6 makes this oil difficult to balance. At 20% 2 tsp will complete your daily Omega6 requirement. Other 1gm of PUFA to be exclusively Omega3s.<br />
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3) Mustard oil: 47% Erucic, 14% Omega6, 7% Omega3. The Erucic acid is a MUFA and gives it the pungent smell. At Omega6:Omega3 of 2:1 its fairly balanced. Also at 20% PUFA it would be fairly stable for normal cooking. Again 4tsp would be sufficient for the days allowance.<br />
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4) Olive oil: 75% MUFA, < 10% PUFA. The low PUFA content means that it is stable enough for cooking. Note commercial olive oil can have PUFA as high as 30%. <br />
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5) Sunflower oil, Safflower oil, Wheat Germ oil, Soybean oil: At >50% PUFA these are best avoided completely. If you want to use keep it in fridge and use with a dropper :-).<br />
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6) Sesame oil: At 40% PUFA, it is an unstable oil. It could be used as a seasoning oil, when used rarely.<br />
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7) Flax Seed oil: At ~70% PUFA, its a very unstable oil. The only good thing about it is that it can be used to balance Omega6 fats from other foods, as it is high in Omega3 and low in Omega6. The ratio being 3:1 Omega3:Omega6. Not more than 1tsp per day, mostly as seasoning or drunk straight up. Buy only cold pressed and keep it in a dark bottle in the fridge. One thing to remember is that plant Omega3s (ALA) are inferior to those in plant sources, as we get preformed EPA and DHA. The conversion rate in men is pathetic of the order of 1% and 4%, while in women and children its 10% and 30% for DHA and EPA respectively.<br />
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For the animal fats lets get the data from other places.<br />
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8) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfat">Milk Fat</a> aka Ghee: 65% Saturated, with some small chains and some medium chain fats. 30% MUFA and less than 4% PUFA. The composition of PUFA depends on the feed of the ruminant. Grass feds generally have a balance of 2:1 Omega6:Omega3. While non-pastured milk PUFA is almost completely Omega6. The milk fat also contains some natural trans fats called Conjugate Linoleic Acid (CLA) and Vaccenic acid. Vaccenic acid is a precursor of CLA. These are byproducts of the animal trying to convert the PUFA into safer MUFA or SFA, and are at worst harmless. They are sold as supplements though. The < 4% PUFA means that 100 gms can be consumed if pastured and 50gms if unpastured. <!--10--><br />
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9)<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow"> Ruminant Fat</a>: 43% SFA, 50% MUFA, and 4% PUFA. Nearly same as Milk fat, except, that the chains are longer, and the short chains are missing. The vitamin content is also lower compared to the milk fat. Milk fat has an increased vitamin content to provide for the growth of babies.<br />
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10) <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5738e/x5738e05.htm">Fish oil</a>: The fatty acid composition varies a lot across fishes. But still we can note a few things. First Omega3:Omega6 varies from 2:1 to 3:1. The amount of PUFA is higher in fish from colder regions. The PUFA content is generally very high. This means that no more than 1tsp and keep it in a fridge. The other benefits of fish oil is that these have Vitamin A and D. I buy my CLO (cod liver oil) in February in bulk so as to get a discount, and I can ask for a recent production. It is possible to get october or november oil, which would have deteriorated much less as the shops don't keep them in fridge. I buy and freeze them. And keep them in fridge one bottle at a time while consuming.<br />
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11) Bird and Pig fat can have as much as 30% PUFA if the diet is rich in soy and grain meal. This happens to animals raised in Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO). Pretty much all of commercialized chicken is CAFO.<br />
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<b>Summary</b><br />
Ghee and Coconut oils are the best fats for consumption. Mustard oil and Peanut oil are ok within limits. Good quality Olive oil can be used regularly, but most commercial olive oil is not good. It is a good idea to have a tea spoon of Fish oil or Flax seed oil for extra omega3s for balancing if not using pastured ghee or animal fat. Ruminant fat is good. Bird and Pig fat is only ok if the feed is not grain based, and low in PUFA. Most seed oils should be avoided.<!--4--><!--10--></10>Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-50009891007774471782012-09-03T04:16:00.001-07:002012-09-03T22:45:30.771-07:00Vitamin K2: The unknown Activator X<a href="http://www.westonaprice.org/nutrition-greats/weston-price">Weston A Price</a> was a Dentist, who didn't know why there were so many people with bad teeth. He took on a world trip to find out people who did not have bad teeth. He wanted to find out what can be done to enhance the quality of teeth. He discovered many natives and tribes that had excellent jaw structure and teeth. He discovered the dietary practices of these people, and distilled the knowledge to come up with fish oil and butter oil (ghee) as the two ingredients that can provide the basic necessities for recovering and building teeth and skeletal structure. At that time it was known that Vitamin A was the crucial factor which helped and was obtained from fish oil. The factor from Ghee was not known, and Dr. Price called it Activator X. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_K">Vitamin K2</a> was discovered in 1993, and is now expected to be the Activator X.<br />
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Vitamin K comes in 2 forms K1 and K2 and have quite a bit overlapping functionality. K2 seems to have a high effect on forming bones and teeth. K1 reduces the requirement of K2 a lot, so it is also a good idea not to concentrate solely on K2, as K1 is easier to obtain through natural sources.<br />
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Vitamin K1 is created by the gut bacteria from elements in green vegetables. Some people may be able to create K2 as well as K2 is also created by bacteria. But the real trouble is that most of the creation happens in the colon, where it is not absorbed. This is the same problem with Vitamin B12. Still it is beneficial to eat plenty of green vegetables.<br />
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Vitamin K2 comes in two forms, MK4 and MK7. The MK4 has a very short half life, and is gone within a few hours. MK7 is the storage form and persists for several days. MK4 is made by mothers in their mammary glands, which is an important source of Vitamin K for the newborn children. MK4 is converted to MK7 by bacteria.<br />
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Milk from Cows or Buffaloes, which eat green grass have MK4 form in their milk. It is heat stable and ghee from pastured cows is a good source. Long aged cheeses created from pastured cows milk contains a lot MK7. Actually the MK7 content of Cheese is much higher than in ghee. Natto a Japanese condiment made by fermenting soy, is the largest source of MK7, and is used in MK7 supplements.<br />
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Green Vegetables, Ghee, and aged Cheeses are a good way to get the full spectrum of vitamin K. But since most of the milk these days is not pastured, and our gut bacteria are not in the best of health, so Vitamin K2 content may still be lacking, particularly for people with impaired gut.<br />
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<a href="http://www.iherb.com/Life-Extension-Super-K-with-Advanced-K2-Complex-90-Softgels/14619?at=0">Super K</a> from Life Extension is a good supplement which contains all three varieties. MK4 in supplements is normally synthetic, which may contain some trans version of MK4, and maybe problematic. So it is still better to try and get the vitamin from pastured dairy. <a href="http://www.kerrygold.com/products/pure-irish-butter/">Several </a><a href="http://www.ashgrovecheese.com.au/otherbutter.html">Pastured </a>butters and cheeses are available from Europe and Australia. The supplement is also quite expensive, but imported butter and cheeses in India would be prohibitively expensive.<br />
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<b>Update:</b> Be aware that Vitamin K2 does not work well with Blood thinners like Warfarin, which are actually Vitamin K antagonist. Vitamin K is very important for our body and Warfarin can cause quite a bit of side effects, including osteoporosis, due to this effect. IMO a better option is to use mega doses of Omega3s, which will suppress Omega6 signalling and act as an anti-coagulant.<br />
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<b>Updated2</b>: Vitamin K2 requires several cofactors to do its job, some of them are Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Magnesium. It also helps with the uptake of Vitamin D and Sulfates.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-25684878592746586802012-08-29T05:42:00.006-07:002020-10-20T02:16:46.736-07:00What is the deal with Wheat?Wheat is one of the oldest grains to have been cultivated, along with Rice and Sorghum. There are a few facts about wheat that are not generally known.<br />
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1) No traditional populations with hundreds of years of consumption history of wheat eats unfermented wheat.<br />
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2) In India, Punjabis and Muslims are the only traditional wheat eaters. Both used fermentation. Muslims still do it sometimes, but Punjabis have converted to roti completely, with the loss of their Sanjha Chulhas.<br />
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3) Using ground flour (not just of wheat) that had been ground more than a week ago, is a fairly recent phenomenon. See <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=mycotoxins+in+wheat+flour">mycotoxins</a>.<br />
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4) Using quick rise yeast along with sugar for fermentation is also a recent development.<br />
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5) Wheat Bran (the so called healthy wheat fiber) causes people to burn through their Vitamin D and other vitamins at an <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25059066/">accelerated rate</a>. <a href="https://www.livescience.com/42838-european-hunter-gatherer-genome-sequenced.html">White skin of Caucasians</a> is probably be due to a grain based diet, but maybe the grain being wheat which actively reduces Vitamin D, also added to the problem. </div><div><br /></div><div>6) WGA (Wheat Germ Agglutinin) is the toxin that causes the most damage in wheat. It is known to cause damage to the small intestine. It is pretty well known to cause <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19332085/">gut permeability</a>. It gets removed by the wheat mills as it has unfavorable baking properties.<br />
<br />7) The most reliable outcome of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Cornell%E2%80%93Oxford_Project">The China Study</a>, was that Wheat is highly related to heart diseases. Denise Minger tried to find relationships that could absolve wheat from the blame, using the data. She couldn't.<a href="http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/09/02/the-china-study-wheat-and-heart-disease-oh-my/"> Read the article</a>.<br />
<br />8) Digesting wheat requires a very good digestive system. Unfortunately our digestive systems are suffering from Anti-biotics, lack of fermented foods, hygienic habits, inadvertently consuming chemicals that are designed to kill bacteria.<br />
<br />9) <a href="https://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/gluten-free-casein-free-diets-for-autism">Gluten Free and Casein Free</a> diets are advised to Autistic people.<br />
<br />10) The highly productive dwarf wheat plant is very low in nutrients. This is where most of the wheat comes from today. It may be a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Belly-Lose-Weight-Health/dp/1609611543">source of problems</a>.<br />
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11) The wheat in commercial food products undergoes some changes that cause it to become poisonous. A quote from <a href="https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/blog/2011/10/13/wheat-belly-toll-of-hubris-on-human">Chris Masterjohn</a>.<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: #fff9ee; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><i><b>In our day, we still refine the flour, but bleach it with chlorine, chlorine dioxide, or potassium bromate instead. Rather than trying to reconstruct the nutritional composition of the original flour, we add a small handful of nutrients based on "current science," including synthetic "folic acid," which is otherwise not found in the food supply. We often chemically or enzymatically deamidate it, mimicking the inflammatory process within the intestines of a celiac patient. We then combine it into foods that have been engineered to maximize their addictive qualities so food companies can maximize their profits. Is it any wonder that "wheat products" would cause disease?</b></i></span>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Milk and Wheat connection:</span></b><br />
In almost all places where Wheat is eaten Milk is also consumed. I suspect that this is because Milk is effective in counteracting the damages caused by wheat. This <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2012/10/evolution-of-lactose-tolerance-why-do-humans-keep-drinking-milk.html">research</a> shows that its not entirely obvious why milk tolerance was selected. It is also interesting that milk tolerance did not get selected in Maize eating populations of America, or the Rice eating populations of the Far East Asia. The only places it was selected for were wheat eating populations. This means that probably, wheat (even in the older times) was so bad for the body, that only people who could survive for long were adapted to milk digestion. This means that drinking pastured whole milk (possibly raw as well, but definitely not UHT and Homogenized milk) is an absolute requirement for eating wheat..<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Conclusion:</span></b><br />
Wheat if eaten should be freshly ground from clean grains, then fermented, before cooking, and eaten along with pastured whole raw milk. Since this is a lot more work than people would normally want to put in, and it is very difficult to get good milk, it is best to avoid wheat. It must never be eaten by people with damaged gut. There is still a chance (IMO only a small chance) that Dr. William Davis is right about the dwarf wheat variety being evil :-).<br />
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<b>A Note on China Study</b>: It is one of the few studies that provided all their data openly. The good thing about this study is that there is a lot of variations in the diet. A funny thing is that the conclusions the researchers reached from their data is not supported by their data. There are several reviews of the study data that give <a href="http://anthonycolpo.com/the-china-study-more-vegan-nonsense/">very</a> <a href="http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html">different </a><a href="http://rawfoodsos.com/the-china-study/">conclusions</a>.</div>
Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-63919973598263673232012-08-26T23:25:00.000-07:002012-08-26T23:25:56.228-07:00Controlling Cravings: The Deconditioning DietI recently came across the excellent blog <a href="http://gettingstronger.org/">Getting Stronger</a> of Todd Becker. It specializes in Hormesis. Hormesis is the beneficial effect arising due to the body's reaction to small stresses (small in time or intensity).<br />
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Hormesis is a very important concept. This is mainly how exercise or vegetables/fruits benefit us. Without hormesis their would be no benefit of exercise as it is a stress to the body. Also vegetables/fruits contain natural toxins, which stresses our body. Hormesis is the principle behind green teas and other herbs benefit.<br />
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I found an interesting idea for reducing cravings, based on hormesis, which I realized that I also tend to do. I will go into bakeries and sweet shops just to have a look and then not buy anything. It seems that this creates a craving in the body, and if the craving is not satisfied, the craving diminishes over time.<br />
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Todd calls the diet he prescribes as the <a href="http://gettingstronger.org/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-toolbar/toolbar.php?wptbto=http%3A%2F%2Fgettingstronger.org%2Fdiet%2F&wptbhash=aHR0cDovL2dldHRpbmdzdHJvbmdlci5vcmcvMjAxMS8wOS9kb2VzLXRhc3R5LWZvb2QtbWFrZS11cy1mYXQvPHdwdGI%2BRG9lcyB0YXN0eSBmb29kIG1ha2UgdXMgZmF0Pzx3cHRiPmh0dHA6Ly9nZXR0aW5nc3Ryb25nZXIub3JnPHdwdGI%2BR2V0dGluZyBTdHJvbmdlcg%3D%3D">Deconditioning Diet</a>. The most interesting thing about the diet is that he does not recommend or restrict any foods. Of course this diet will work even better on a paleo based diet. Todd defines 3 stages.<br />
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The first phase is called <b>General Insulin Reduction</b> phase. Here you want to go on a lower carb diet, to keep your insulin levels stable. It is required that you restrict all food intake to 3 meals at fixed times, ie no snacking. The 3 fixed time meals may take some time and Todd provides some general ideas to reach that point. Last but the most important part is to start a craving log. Basically when you don't eat in between and you eat only 3 times, you will feel the need to eat in between. At this time you would want to note, which food you would like to eat most.<br />
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The second phase is called <b>Cue extinction and Counter Conditioning</b>. In this phase the goal is to always eat when you are not hungry. This might seem counter intuitive. But the point is that whenever you feel hungry, if you delay food you will stop feeling hungry after some time. At this point if you eat, you will train your brain to limit the hunger pangs, as they will not provide it food.<br />
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The most important part is to devise a counter conditioning plan. Basically you want to find activities that you can do which will take your mind off food, immediately after exposing yourself to the foods that you crave. These activities should last for at least 15 minutes. The longer the better. Next you will want to see some food that you crave and avoid eating for as long as possible. Also when you do eat, you eat something that does not contain foods that you crave. The best way is to walk around in a bakery or sweet shop, and exit without buying anything. Go home and then eat the normal food. Make sure there is enough gap between the shop excursion and the meal.<br />
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You don't need to do the above all the time, a few times a week will help a lot. You could do this everyday while returning from the office if you have a handy shop on the way. If you are a cook prepare the food, but don't eat it. That would be real tough though :-).<br />
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The final phase is the weight loss phase, aka <b>Meal Skipping</b>.<br />
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This is a very abbreviated summary. The actual article is very detailed.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-18294500580320546842012-08-23T02:51:00.001-07:002012-08-23T02:51:24.950-07:00Importance of diet in Auto Immune Diseases<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoimmune_disease">Autoimmune diseases</a> have become very common. I am seeing a lot of thyroid problems. This article explains why you should try to go on a hypo allergic diet, to prevent future autoimmune diseases.</div>
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An Autoimmune disease occurs when the body's own immune system attacks the tissues of its own body. This normally happens because it reacted to some proteins and those proteins <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_mimicry">looked like</a> the proteins in your body, eg Thyroid cells, pancreas cells, etc. The triggering proteins could come externally from an infection, insect bite, or from food.<br /><br />We know that it can happen due to food only when the digestive system is not doing its job properly. In a normal digestive system, foreign proteins will be properly broken down and the amino acids will be absorbed, or else the offending proteins will be properly discarded.</div>
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If you have one type of Autoimmune disease, it is also likely that over time you could develop another type of autoimmune disease, unless the cause is eliminated. So if you discover one type, you have to treat it, to avoid developing another type. Unfortunately once an autoimmune disease has been triggered you can only control it. You can never eliminate it because the immune system never forgets.</div>
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The digestive system can get compromised in several ways. The stomach could suffer with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achlorhydria">low acidity</a>, which prevents proper digestion of proteins. The intestine may suffer with what is called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_gut_syndrome">Leaky Gut Syndrome</a>, which allows proteins to enter the blood stream without proper digestion.</div>
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The proper solution is to avoid eating stuff that you are not able to digest easily, and avoid the foods that are commonly associated with allergies. Wheat is a special case as it is associated with a lot of digestive issues, and is known to directly cause the autoimmune disease of the intestines called Celiac.</div>
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The first step should be to get rid of all of the major allergens (gluten, soy, eggs, casein, seafood, and Peanuts), from the diet, completely. Fish are ok, but the rest of seafoods are a problem. Next we get into personal sensitivities.</div>
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You would need to determine your personal sensitivities. There are some tests available (look for allergy tests), but they are all not very reliable. They have both the chance of false positives or false negatives. These could serve as a starting point but never the destination. The only good way is to test your reaction after an elimination diet.</div>
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A good elimination diet for mostly vegetarians which also is good for the gut is Ghee, Rice and some vegetables that you tolerate well and are very low in fibers, eg gourd family with peels removed. You can eat meat/fish/chicken, but avoid any shellfish or other seafood. Also add a lot of probiotics, eg fermented vegetables, rice, kaanji, kimchi, pickles. Keep the spices very low in cooking, and instead use fermented pickles. You want to make all the fermented stuff at home, unless you know a reliable source.</div>
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You should stay on the elimination diet for around 2-3 months, and then start introducing foods one at a time that you would like to have regularly. Avoid adding grains and legumes first. You could test fermented grains legume combos like dosa, idly, etc. Don't use the common allergens anywhere. Also avoid grains/legumes that are ground with their skins. You should keep one day in between introductions, to allow for delayed reactions.</div>
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Anything that gave you mild reaction, you can retest after a gap of 2-3 months. Avoid anything that gave you a large reaction or the common allergens till you can consume foods without problem that gave you mild reaction before. The probiotics should eventually fix your gut and allow you to eat the rest.</div>
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<a href="http://mostlyvegpaleo.blogspot.in/2012/08/supplements-overview-and-vitamin-d3.html">Sufficient Vitamin D</a> is very important, as one of its major functions is to help with the proper running of immune system. It has been seen that most people with autoimmune diseases have very low Vit D.</div>
Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-56449488932294190732012-08-21T04:17:00.002-07:002012-08-21T04:17:58.455-07:00Managing blood glucose levels of another friendI have been working with another friend to normalize his blood glucose levels. It took nearly 2 weeks of measuring and adapting the diet. There were some constraints with this friend as he is not ready to ditch the wheat or rice. He has provided the following chart and the food log.<br />
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You will notice on days 18th and 19th. His blood sugar did not rise much even though he had rice and rotis. We might think that his body is able to absorb the given sugar. But that is not the case.<br />
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We can see that his fasting is higher than his post breakfast. This happens when the body is not able to absorb the morning glucose due to cortisol. This happens only when insulin resistance is high. So why is his bg level low. The clue is that he is complaining about hunger if he is not eating for a long time.<br /><br />This almost always happens due to bg getting too low. This happens with high insulin resistance and high carbs in the diet. Admittedly he has reduced carbs from his diet, but not enough. He will see reduction of this hunger problem only when he reduces his carb levels further.<br />
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Also his diet has lower fat than it should have to counter the carb load. I have recommended to get his rice fried in ghee. Paratha is better than roti. Unfortunately it reduces the nutrient content in diet.<br /><br />Now I am recommending him to also check his blood sugar before lunch and dinner. This will hopefully slowly nudge him to get rid of wheat and rice. These are the real problematic factors in his diet.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-28278945754063410652012-08-18T00:03:00.000-07:002012-08-18T00:03:12.865-07:00Hypothyroidism: Some more informationI have since last week learnt some more about Hypothyroidism, mostly from <a href="http://chriskresser.com/thyroid">Chris Kresser's excellent blog</a>.<div>
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Low T4 high TSH is the normal case, where Thyroid is not functioning properly, and possibly it is being damaged due to autoimmunity. This is Hashimoto's Thyroiditis in 90% of the cases. So it is important to get tested for Anti-TPO, to determine whether there has been ever Autoimmune activity. This number cannot be easily reduced. The other test is Anti-Thyroglubulin or Anti-Tg. This number is high during an active attack. The other most probable case is Iodine deficiency, which is not very common. In these cases it is helpful to take Thyroxine (aka T4) medication.</div>
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Low T3, with normal T4 is the problematic case. Because in this case it is likely that there is a chronic condition in the body. To avoid stimulating the condition, the body has reduced T3. In this case we should find and eliminate the underlying problem. Because just adding T4 or T3 would likely cause the issues that the body is trying to prevent.</div>
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Low T3 can also be possible due to damage of Pituitary gland, due to an autoimmune issues.</div>
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One case which seems to be helped by T3 (cytomel) is when the body temperature is also low along with Low T4 and low T3. This doesn't seem to be very common though. If you happen to have low body temperature then measuring it and adding T4 and maybe T3 to get the body temperature might be possible. But we don't know what side effects this would cause.</div>
Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-17634674896268143252012-08-14T05:34:00.001-07:002012-08-14T06:34:15.524-07:00Supplements: Overview and Vitamin D3A good and balanced paleo inspired diet should in theory provide all nutrients. But reality does not meet the theory very well. There are several issues because of which we may not get enough nutrients. In this article we will just discuss the general reasons and Vitamin D.<br />
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<b>Digestion may not be very good</b><br />
Many people these days have bad digestion. Bad digestion results in incomplete absorption of nutrients. Bad digestion normally occurs due to impaired gut flora, which provide some of the important nutrients, Biotin and Vit K. We should improve the digestion, but while we get it fixed it would be best to get some extra nutrients in the form of supplements.<br />
<br />
<b>Food restrictions</b><br />
Many people in India are vegetarians. Vegetarians need to eat enough ghee and curd. Unfortunately its very difficult to get very good quality of either easily in the present environment. This results in reduced Vit B12, Zinc, and Fat soluble vitamins like K2 and A.<br />
<br />
<b>Reduced nutrient content in food</b><br />
This is by far the major reason for malnutrition. These days fruits and vegetables have undergone modification, via breeding, Genetic Modifications, enforced mutations, etc. These are done in most cases for increasing production. A breed that provides a larger fruits and vegetables or in a significantly increased quantity will have a much lowered nutrient content. Plants are also bread for blander and sweeter fruits and vegetables, further reducing the nutrient contents.<br />
<br />
<b>Consumption of refined foods, salt and water</b><br />
People these days are eating refined flours, refined sugars, refined salts, and purified water. These might be prudent in some cases, but overall affect the nutrient intake. Refined flours, white rice are not a problem if the intake is not significant. Sugars are bad even if not refined and should be avoided. Refined salts are created to remove the problematic magnesium chloride, which is hygroscopic, and makes the salt absorb water. Unfortunately it is difficult to find unrefined salt. In Bangalore it was easier, but in Delhi I haven't been able to source it. Purified water is mostly a necessity because of the chlorination process that goes in the potable water, but it also removes important nutrients like magnesium.<br />
<br />
<b>Lack of Sunlight or Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) deficiency</b><br />
Vitamin D is generally very low in people, because we are living in houses, and work in offices, both confined spaces, with no exposure to sun. Contrary to popular belief, sunlight does not cause damage to the skin, as you can observe in people working the whole day under the sun. The problem normally is bad nutrition, and very occasional sunlight exposure. UVB component of Sunlight is used by the skin to create vitamin D. This vitamin/hormone is a very important nutrient. It is required for the proper functioning of the immune system. It is required by the liver for handling toxic chemicals. It is also required for absorbing Calcium from food.<br />
<br />
The best way to get vitamin D is from the sun. If you are fair skinned, an hour or two of morning sun in the summers in Delhi would be enough to produce enough vitamin D. But for darker skinned people the whole day in winters in Delhi may not be adequate to meet the demand. The skin color is mostly determined based on the vitamin D requirement, sun and genetics.<br />
<br />
It is also possible to get Vitamin D from Fish and fats of animals that have been exposed to sunlight most of their lives.<br />
<br />
Majority of the people are deficient in Vitamin D, with values less than 20ng/ml. The best values are somewhere between 30ng/ml and 50ng/ml. There is quite a controversy regarding what is the healthy range. Read Chris Masterjohn's <a href="http://www.westonaprice.org/cod-liver-oil/update-on-vitamins-a-and-d">post </a>on the subject if you want to get more technical information. He is of the opinion 30ng/ml - 35ng/ml is the best range. Vitamin D can have some significant negative effects, if attempted to increase by exogenous intake. Many people handle it well though.<br />
<br />
Normal bad reactions are increase in serum calcium, if there are issues with excretion (ie impaired kidneys), or increase in calcium deposition. Serum calcium increase is easy to detect if you are aware and mindful of the <a href="http://www.emedicinehealth.com/hypercalcemia_elevated_calcium_levels/page3_em.htm#hypercalcemia_symptoms">symptoms</a>. Calcium deposition is much more probable and difficult to determine.<br />
<br />
Calcium absorbed by Vitamin D requires several cofactors to utilize it. Some of them are Vitamin K2, Vitamin A and Magnesium. These nutrients should also exist to prevent calcium deposition.<br />
<br />
Cod liver oil is the most natural way of getting extra vitamin D. It contains Omega3s, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and some other good things as well. In India <a href="http://www.seacod.com/">Seacod </a>sells cod liver oil in 100ml bottles. They also sell capsules. Each capsule contains only 300mg of the oil. This is quite less. A person can consume 1 to 2 tea spoons, ie 5-10ml of the oil. If you wanted to get that much oil from caps you would need to consume 10-30caps. Clearly, excessive. Another issue is that taste can tell you whether the oil has gone bad. This is not possible with caps. Each 5ml of Seacod contains.<br />
<br />
EPA - 333ml<br />
DHA - 500ml<br />
Vit A - 4700 IU<br />
Vit D - 470 IU<br />
<br />
<br />
It does not contain a lot of vitamin D, but it is a very good supplement. You will see your immunity improve a lot with it.<br />
<br />
Seacod unfortunately prefers selling the capsules, so we had quite a bit of trouble finding the real values. Kudos to <a href="http://rajganpath.com/">Raj Ganpath</a> for finally nailing someone there to provide sensible numbers.<br />
<br />
The fresh cod liver oil will have very little fishy smell. Unfortunately it is difficult to find it very fresh. So try to find as fresh as you can, and store them in fridge or even in freezer for longer term storage. If it tastes very bad, its better to throw it.<br />
<br />
One important point is that never supplement calcium along with Vitamin D. Vitamin D supplementation is already has dangers of calcium deposition, adding more calcium to the mix can only be worse. An aside, milk is not required for calcium, as many cultures which can't handle milk have shown (asians are an example). There is plenty of calcium in green vegetables and tubers. Pastured full fat dairy is ok as it contains enough K2 to handle extra calcium. It would be better to avoid reduced fat dairy, when supplementing with Vitamin D.<br />
<br />
Gelcaps are the best way to get extra vitamin D (over and above cod liver oil), because they are filled with an oil to improve absorption. NOW foods has a very reasonably priced <a href="http://www.iherb.com/Now-Foods-Vitamin-D-3-5-000-IU-240-Softgels/22335">5000IU, with 240caps</a> in a single bottle. I have used this almost exclusively.<br />
<br />
<b>Where to get Vitamins and Minerals</b><br />
<a href="http://www.iherb.com/">iHerb </a>and <a href="http://www.swansonvitamins.com/">Swanson Vitamins </a>are good online stores in the US. I have used them. The trouble is with the shipment and customs part. I personally never faced any issues with the shipment and customs, but my brother has faced problems. The cost of supplements in the US is very low. The shipment and customs can add quite significant costs to the supplements. This option may still be quite a bit cheaper if the cost of supplements being ordered is at least a couple of hundred USDs.<br />
<br />
If you cannot get someone to bring them for you and you want to order only a few items, then you may want to check out local companies. There are two online shops in India, which are selling supplements, <a href="http://www.healthkart.com/">Healthkart </a>and <a href="http://www.biovea.com/in/index.aspx">Biovea</a>. I haven't tried these yet.Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-88210024720643524032012-08-13T02:16:00.000-07:002012-08-13T02:16:08.365-07:00Latest learnings on HypothyroidismI have been trying to find more information on Hypothyroidism.<br />
<br />
One interesting <a href="http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/93/6/2300.full.pdf">paper </a>shows that there is a circadian rhythm to Thyroid hormones. Some practical implications of the graphs are<br />
1) T4 is lower in the night, while TSH and T3 are higher in the night.<br />
2) Sometime around 10:00 both TSH and T4 rise, while T3 dips.<br />
3) The time when all 3 are steady for some time is afternoon 3:00 pm.<br />
<br />
This means that the best time to get tested is around 3:00pm.<br />
<br />
If you are supplementing T4, the best time would be when it is lower, ie night time. Also <a href="http://thyroid.about.com/od/thyroiddrugstreatments/a/bedtime.htm">Mary Shomon</a> reports that patients see the best results when they consume it just before sleeping. There is also a research paper published in 2007, where they saw significant difference between taking it in the night and taking it in the morning.<br />
<br />
Remember the same strategy will not work for T3, because T3 is higher in the night. T3 is best consumed split up few times during the day, as it has a very low half life.<br />
<br />
I came across a <a href="http://www.auburn.edu/~deruija/endo_thyroidfts.pdf">document<span id="goog_404492671"></span></a> explaining the various thyroid tests. It also has a table at the end summarizing the tests.<br />
<br />Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-51367060814186332962012-08-09T04:15:00.000-07:002012-08-09T04:18:01.051-07:00Feedback from a glucometer for a prediabetic.<br />
I collected some data from a friend, who is pre-diabetic, on how his blood sugar reacted to different foods.<br />
I had asked him to get his blood sugar below 140, preferably below 120. And to do this he had to experiment with what he ate.<br />
With a diet he self selected based on the feedback from glucometer, he could normalize his blood sugar within 2 days.<br />
I analyze the first 5 days of his food log, and these provide some very interesting information.<br />
<br />
Day 1<br />
Fasting 140<br />
Upma aampana, half apple -190<br />
Ghiya Chana dal bhindi 2 rotis curd - 193<br />
predinner 112<br />
3 drum sticks + salad (tomato + cucumber) 118.<br />
<br />
From this we can see that Upma caused a massive increase in bg level, due to the high content of carbs in upma. The lunch caused another big increase again because of the high carb content in the daal and rotis. The dinner was low in carbs and medium in fiber and resulted in very little increase.<br />
<br />
Day 2<br />
Fasting 127<br />
methi rotis-2 apple pommegranate 175<br />
pre lunch 96<br />
moong dal cauliflower soup rotis-2 curd 169<br />
lassi 105<br />
salad(cuc+tomato) soup 110<br />
<br />
The fasting has dropped due to the low carb dinner. Again a 50point increase due to rotis and fruits at breakfast. The lunch increase was huge >70points due to the dal and rotis. Dinner was low carb.<br />
The lassi shows that curd is being handled very well, and not causing much rise.<br />
<br />
Day 3<br />
Fasting 108<br />
4 eggs baked anar, jamun, water melon 112<br />
pre-lunch 100<br />
poha(1/2 bowl uncooked) dahi 164<br />
lassi <br />
roasted chicken 123(2 o'clock late night)<br />
<br />
Fasting has actually become good, in just two days. A low carb and low fat breakfast, not much increase. Poha caused 64 point increase, due to being mostly carbs. 123 at 2 o'clock is probably more due to the late night stress rather than the (lack of) carbs in the chicken. <br />
<br />
Day 4<br />
fasting 111<br />
4 eggs scrambled anar, jamun 98<br />
2 eggs 2 med potatoes veg curd 131<br />
predinner 94<br />
chicken curry cucumber<br />
<br />
Fasting is higher than PP after a low carb breakfast. This happens because the insulin spike causes the glucose in the blood to be absorbed making the bg level lower. In some people it can trigger hunger, so eating breakfast can make you hungrier. After lunch is a bit higher, possibly because of eggs and potatoes and curd. Protein can and does convert to glucose, when they exceed the requirement. Breakfast and lunch proteins due to eggs is 40gms. Breakfast protein must have been utilized but this protein may have got converted.<br />
<br />
Day 5<br />
fasting 111<br />
3 eggs boiled <br />
Rice chicken 1 spoon icecream 111<br />
roasted fox nut, roasted chana 183<br />
curd rice sambhar 158 <br />
<br />
A very low carb and medium fat breakfast must have resulted in a low bg level, though it was not measured. This is probably why rice did not cause the level to go very high. The evening is very interesting. A small amount of roasted nuts and chana caused the level to rise to 183. This effect is called Chinese restaurant effect. It is caused by a very high fiber with very low carbs and very low fat food. This shows that snacking should be avoided, by diabetics. If you need to snack do it with something high in fat. A moderate carb dinner probably did not cause much bg rise, as the pre-dinner bg level would already be higher due to the snack.<br />
<br />
I hope the above analysis gives people some idea on how easy it is to control your blood sugar level.<br />
<br />
<b>Important Note</b>: <i>This information only applies to people on medicines like Metformin. It does not apply to people on Insulin. Insulin users please do not try this unless you know how it affects your insulin intake.</i>Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-34012714169945709062012-08-03T05:44:00.000-07:002012-08-07T02:25:30.905-07:00Hypothyroidism: Tests, Diet and SupplementsI have seen a couple of cases of hypothyroidism very recently.<br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Hypothyroidism is basically an inavailability of T3 hormone to the cells.
The cells need the hormone for energy production. T3 hormone is the means by
which the brain controls energy utilization in the body. The Hypothalamus
indicates to the Pituitary gland that more energy is required. The Pituitary
generates TSH to signal the thyroid to create T4/T3.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
There are 4 tests that can distinguish different cases of
hypothyroidism.</div>
<div>
<i>1) Free T3</i></div>
<div>
<i>2) Free T4</i></div>
<div>
<i>3) TSH</i></div>
<div>
<i>4) Reverse T3</i></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
For best feeling Free T3 must be in the upper half of the normal range.
Free T4 must also be in the upper range. TSH should be around 1, preferably
below, but not lower than 0.3. If T4 is high and T3 is low, its quite likely
that T4 is being converted to RT3. The RT3 range can distinguish the case.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
If T3 and T4 are low and TSH is also low, then there is a problem with the
Pituitary gland.</div>
<div>
If T3/T4 are high and TSH is also high, then also there is a problem with
the Pituitary, and possibly there is a tumor there.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The normal hypothyroidism case is that T3 and T4 is low and TSH is
high.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
If T3/T4 are high and TSH is very low, then it is a hyper thyroid case. But
if the symptoms are hypothyroid then it is probably a thyroiditis case, where
the autoimmune attack is ongoing. It could also be a Zinc Deficiency case, but
that would be rare.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<b><br /></b>
<b>So how do we get hypothyroidism?</b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
There are two reasons.</div>
<div>
1) Thyroiditis - An Autoimmune disorder where, the body's immune system is
killing the Thyroid cells. This is the most common cause.</div>
<div>
2) Iodine Deficiency - This can happen due to Iodine, Selenium deficiency.
This is also fairly common.</div>
<div>
3) Zinc Deficiency - Zinc is required for absorbing T3 in the cells. This
is quite rare.</div>
<div>
4) Other reasons - These are rare, and occur due to medicines or surgical
procedures.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Thyroiditis normally happens due to overactive immune system which is not
able to identify the right proteins to attack. The ability to identify properly
rests a lot on VitD levels. This vitamin unfortunately is pretty low in most
people in the present times. The immune system becomes over active because
some offensive proteins are entering the blood stream. This is most likely due
to a leaky gut, but in rare cases the immune system can get primed from the gut
itself.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
There are several types of Thyroiditis</div>
<div>
1) Hashimoto's - This probably occurs due to leaky gut causing the immune
system to become overactive.</div>
<div>
2) PostPartum - This occurs after pregnancy, because the immune
system undergoes a change at the time. This could also be related to the leaky
gut.</div>
<div>
3) Others related to medical procedures or radiation.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Thyroiditis can be tested with the following</div>
<div>
<div>
<i>1) Anti-ThyroGlobulin </i></div>
<div>
<i>2) Anti-TPO</i></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Diet and Supplements</b></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Diet and supplement depend on the cause of the hypothyroidism.</div>
<div>
<br />
First we need to supplement to get the T4/T3 hormone to the right
level.</div>
<div>
<br />
The easiest is to supplement with a form of Thyroxine (T4). T4 converts to
T3, and both the required hormones are available. This works for most people.
But for some additional T3 hormone supplementation is required. People whose
thyroid gland is inactive to a very large extent, should consider Dessicated
Thyroid gland supplements, because these provide other hormones as well.
Particularly calcitonin hormone is required to prevent a possibility of
osteoporosis.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Generally people take the Supplemental hormone without monitoring. The
monitoring via FT3/FT4/TSH is very expensive. A much cheaper solution is to find
the body temperature and monitor it to find whether the supplementation is
sufficient.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For measuring the body temp use an analog thermometer. Keep the thermometer in the mouth for around 5
minutes for proper temperature. Also try to avoid doing anything during the
test.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Take the temperature at 3hr 6hr and 9hr after waking up. Average the 3
numbers. The aim is to get the temperature to 98.4F, with supplementation.
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If there is a lot of variation (>0.6F) in day to day average
temperature, then the adrenal might be implicated. This may cause problems while
supplementing with T4, and Cortisol (Hydrocort) supplementation may also be
required.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If the supplementation of T4 is not helping raise the Body Temperature, then FT3/FT4/TSH/RT3 tests should be made to determine, what is going wrong. It maybe that T3 supplementation is also required. If a lot of T4/T3 hormone is required then it might be that a large part of the thyroid gland is not working, then it would be better to check the thyroid gland with radiology. If indeed a large part is inactive then it is much better to use dessicated thyroid gland.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
If the cause is Thyroiditis, then it is important to eat a very strict
paleo diet (ie no grains/legumes/milk) without nightshades. Specifically
avoiding things that are major sources of allergies, like wheat, soy, peanuts, milk solids.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For Thyroiditis it is also important to normalize Vitamin D. A low vitamin
D is normally associated with Auto-immune diseases.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
In any case an effort should be made to normalize Selenium and Iodine
intake. Goat/Lamb Kidneys and Brazil nuts are the major sources of selenium.
Kelp powder/Lugol's solution/Iodoral are some of the sources of Iodine. Effort
should be made to raise the intake of iodine to 1.5-3mg/day, except in case of Thyroiditis.<br />
<br />
Update:<br />
It is important to remember that T3 levels vary a lot during the day. Even T4 can vary a lot. In case of Thyroiditis the levels vary a lot if the attack is on going. This is why, the body temperature test can be more reliable indicator of Thyroid function if it really Thyroid problem. The 4 hormone tests are important to distinguish where the problem exists.</div>Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-63504318872058120982012-08-01T05:06:00.002-07:002012-08-01T06:51:37.782-07:00My presentationsI have created in all 4 presentations.<br />
<br />
1) This presentation is the super set, contains whatever I know about losing weight.<br />
<a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B72aAxb5oUwxMTRmdjMyRTJycWM">https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B72aAxb5oUwxMTRmdjMyRTJycWM</a><br />
<br />
2) This presentation contains information only about the requirements for good health.<br />
<a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B72aAxb5oUwxakdERElXUnk3T0E">https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B72aAxb5oUwxakdERElXUnk3T0E</a><br />
<br />
3) This is a new short presentation, which can complete in one hour.<br />
<a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B72aAxb5oUwxbzljUl9jSVk5OEE">https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B72aAxb5oUwxbzljUl9jSVk5OEE</a><br />
<br />
4) The common myths slide.<br />
<a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B72aAxb5oUwxdFpnVDU0QmpKbTg">https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B72aAxb5oUwxdFpnVDU0QmpKbTg</a><br />
<br />
<br />Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6969650989310001106.post-49300726436482658562012-08-01T04:32:00.001-07:002012-08-01T04:32:05.649-07:00A small primer on Genetics, and its implications for a Paleo diet and lifestyle.<br />
This blog has been dormant for long. From now on I will be making an effort to keep the articles flowing.<br />
<br />
I heard this question from a person, who thought that since our digestive system adapts to new food we should be able to adapt to chemicals in our lifetime. This is grossly erroneous. This article will attempt to explain why it is wrong.<br />
<br />
There are several questions on why to use a Paleolithic Diet. Paleo diet gurus say that there has been very little evolution since the start of the Neolithic Period. While Scientists say that the rate of evolution has quickened since the advent of Agriculture.<br />
<br />
Which one is to be believed?<br />
<br />
I would side with the scientists. Yes evolution has quickened with the advent of agriculture. And it must be so, because a changed environment (eating habits) necessitates adaptation. This would increase the pace of evolution. By this logic the pace of evolution must be maddening in the present century. And it must be so. You must be hearing news of increased cases of birth defects :-).<br />
<br />
Evolution does not involve only good things. It can create adaptations that are good only on the average. For example Sickle Cell anaemia. It evolved for enabling adaptation to malaria. It is not a good adaptation. Some people get too much of it, that is it becomes the dominant factor then it can cause a much increased mortality. Faster adaptations are generally a trade off.<br />
<br />
Over time evolution will find a way to solve a problem that does not have any bad side effects, but this takes a very long time.<br />
<br />
Remember that evolution is measured in generations, not in time. So a species like humans who have a very long time between generations (20yrs), will take a long time for the same evolution, as bacteria, where the time between generations is measured in minutes. Bacteria can also evolve by direct DNA transfer, so they don't even need a generation.<br />
<br />
Now lets consider another question. Is it really genetic adaptation we see in the nature? Do you know that genetic difference between Chimpanzees and us is less than 1%. So why are we so different than Chimpanzees.<br />
<br />
The answer is really Epigenetics. Epigenetics is responsible for most of the genetic conditions that we blame genes for. And the good news is that you can affect epigenetics with your lifestyle.<br />
<br />
So what is Epigenetics?<br />
<br />
Genes are basically recipes for creating proteins. The Nucleus can be considered to be a huge dynamic library of such recipes. The infrastructure used to organize the library is called epigenetics. There is so much genetic information in the nucleus that it would not be possible to make everything available efficiently. So the library arranges itself to provide the most used recipes in the most efficient way.<br />
<br />
If you use different recipes the organization will rearrange to allow the new access to be made more efficiently. This rearrangement can take a long time, even generations.<br />
<br />
An important caveat is that the reorganization can only help with conditions that have already been encountered before. It cannot help with new conditions. That is where mutations are required for experimenting with the new conditions. And adapting to a new condition takes a much longer time than adapting to a condition that has occured before.<br />
<br />
When you eat modern processed foods, the body is struggling to work with them, many of the chemicals in them, it has never encountered before. It does not know what to do about them. They can and do confuse the system.<br />
<br />
When you eat neolithic foods, ie grains/legumes/milk, the body knows how to handle them, although the handling may not be entirely good. Some people may react to them badly, eg Coeliac disease, some may handle them sub optimally, ie gas, bad digestion, others may be able to handle them perfectly well.<br />
<br />
With paleolithic foods, chances are that the foods themselves have evolved so much, and have created proteins and ezymes that we cannot handle, but mostly they will be handled very well. Allergies to paleolithic foods are rare, but not rare for neolithic foods. With Modern chemicals, the system does not even know how to react. They mostly cause damage, without system reacting to them.<br />
<br />
The good thing is that epigenetics can allow us to reverse that bad effects of the modern foods, if the damage is not extensive.<br />
<br />
One more important point is that our digestive system is very much dependent on our gut flora, ie the bacteria and other microbes in our digestive system. The microbes do adapt very fast to new inputs, so the digestive system adaptation is very fast, but this doesn't mean that our body will be able to absorb or discard the modern chemicals correctly. They can still enter our system. They can and will still cause damage to us.<br />
<br />
The best option is to start a strict paleo diet for a couple of months, then slowly add neolithic stuff, to determine whether we are able to handle them well. Avoid the modern processed stuff completely. That stuff should not even be part of food.<br />
<br />
When you eat a good diet that your body can handle well, you will see marked improvement in your well being, as the epigenetic structure will align to where it should be, slowly over time.<br />Anand Srivastavahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15616369007370348265noreply@blogger.com0